These days, every small to big organization is adopting digital transformation so that they can be ahead of the market competitors and be efficient. Enterprises are constantly looking for different ways that can help them optimize their network infrastructure and ensure better performance, cost efficiency, and resilience. So, organizations require a smart solution in this fast-paced digital landscape such as SD-WAN.
Many think that the traditional Wide Area Network (WAN) models can help them in making the organization efficient and productive. Though it is a robust technology, it often falls short of meeting the demands of modern businesses. So, the market is witnessing a shift from traditional WAN to SDWAN which is a transformative technology to address several network challenges. The issues and challenges that happen due to the use of software-based management and automation can be solved with SD-WAN technology.
There are dual benefits of deployment of SD-WAN and that are cost efficiency and resilience. Want to know how these benefits of SD-WAN revolutionize enterprise networking? Read out here:
Know about SD-WAN
For those who don’t know, SD-WAN is a virtual WAN architecture through which enterprises can securely connect users to applications. This is a smart solution that uses any combination of transport services such as MPLS, LTE, and broadband internet services.
So, this WAN abstracts the network hardware and transport features to simplify the management and operation of a WAN. It works by decoupling the networking hardware from its control mechanism.
Major Key Components of SD-WAN that ensures resilience
Certain important components of SD-WAN make enterprises migrate from traditional WAN. These components also help enterprises in cost-efficiency and resilience. So, it’s important to have a clear understanding of these components.
Centralized Management
With SD-WAN deployment, enterprises will be able to use a centralized control function. This will help direct the traffic across the WAN securely and smartly.
Enhanced Security
SD-WAN has several built-in security features that protect the data of enterprises from any sort of cyber attack. Some of its crucial security features are encryption and threat intelligence integration.
Application Awareness
This can help you identify the applications and apply all the policies to ensure optimal performance.
Multiple transport
Another major key component of SD-WAN is its multiple transport technologies. That helps optimize the use of bandwidth and improve resilience.
How does SD-WAN offer cost efficiency?
If an enterprise is deploying the SD-WAN solution then they will get the benefit of cost-efficiency. It can easily identify the errors that are sometimes not possible with traditional WAN architecture. Here are a few ways in which this technology can ensure cost-efficiency:
Reducing Operational Expenses
- Lowers the connectivity costs
The traditional WANs make use of MPLS circuits, which are expensive and also offer limited bandwidth. However, this is not the case with SD-WAN as it supports multiple types of lower-cost connections. Your enterprise can use broadband, LTE, and fiber anything with SD-WAN. By ensuring these connections, businesses can achieve higher bandwidth at a very low cost.
According to a report, companies that use SD-WAN have reduced their annual connectivity costs by up to 50% as compared to those using traditional MPLS-based WANs
- Reduces the hardware and maintenance expenses
SD-WAN technology reduces the reliance on the hardware. This is because it is a software-based architecture that can run on off-the-shelf hardware which helps in reducing the capital expenditure on specialized networking equipment. Along with this, centralized management simplifies network operations by reducing the need for on-site maintenance and technical support. So, the enterprise doesn’t need to spend extra money on hardware maintenance.
The networking experts suggest that SD-WAN can achieve a 60% reduction in overall hardware costs when you integrate them into your IT.
- Business operational efficiency
SD-WAN has the features of centralized control and automation capabilities. These features help to streamline network management and reduce the time and resources required for network configuration. It can also manage monitoring and troubleshooting processes very well. In addition to that, automated policies can easily minimize manual interventions, by lowering operational expenses.
In a study, it has been highlighted that SD-WAN reduces the time IT staff spends on network management by up to 70 to 80%. This will not only save money in hiring additional staffs but also allow the IT team to focus on more strategic initiatives.
How SD-WAN’s resilience enhance network reliability and performance
No doubt, SD-WAN technology is a resilient solution that allows enterprises to connect with SD-WAN vendors. Let’s understand the resilience benefit of SD-WAN in a detailed manner:
- Offers smart path control:
With SD-WAN, you get the intelligent path control feature that helps in transmitting the traffic over the best available links. This transmission will be based on real-time conditions. In addition to this, this solution also ensures optimal application performance and reliability even if there is any network congestion or failures.
- Built-in redundancy
As SD-WAN supports multiple connections, it can offer built-in redundancy and failover capabilities. So, traffic will be automatically rerouted to a good connection in the event of a link failure without disrupting ongoing sessions. As a result, this will help enhance the network availability and minimize downtime.
- Scalability and Flexibility
SD-WAN also has this software-defined approach which will enable seamless scalability. Because of this, businesses can quickly add new sites or increase bandwidth as required by them. This flexibility is important for companies that have dynamic network requirements.
Conclusion
We have seen how SD-WAN represents a significant change in enterprise networking by offering excellent cost efficiency and resilience. It also supports multiple transport options so that it can meet the evolving needs of modern businesses. The implementation of SD-WAN can accelerate, and drive further innovations and improvements in the networking system of the company.