We are living in a connected world through applications and devices. This digital transformation is completely normal and can be seen in various organizations. Today, all organizations are connected to devices and applications to remote branches through the network. The role of networking technologies in enterprise operations cannot be ignored. Among the multiple of solutions available, Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) has emerged as the best option. It is continuously revolutionizing how businesses connect, communicate, and work with their customers and associates. Wondering about the role of SD-WAN in modern enterprises? If yes then here’s what you want to know.

This blog explores all the multiple roles of SD-WAN in modern enterprises, that are bringing transformative impact on network infrastructure, agility and security.

What is Enterprise Networking evolution?

Traditional wide-area networks were once the major source of networking for enterprise connectivity. But, today, most enterprises are switching to SD-WAN. This is because of their rigid architectures and limited flexibility. So, today, there’s a need for deployment of SD-WAN that is required in today’s dynamic business landscape.

So, organizations are relying on software-defined principles and technology to abstract network control. It is also a useful solution to automate traffic management, providing amazing flexibility, and scalability, and ensuring cost-efficiency. Because of this, we can see an evolution in enterprise networking as SD-WAN technology.

Roles of SD-WAN technology in modern enterprises–

Let’s now learn about the roles of the SD-WAN that have made it a popular technology in networking.

Enhancing agility and flexibility

One of the primary benefits of SD-WAN is its ability to enhance agility and flexibility in enterprise networks. This agility is important in today’s fast-paced business environment.  

• SD-WAN helps organizations to adapt to changing business requirements.
• This technology works by decoupling network control from the underlying hardware and leveraging centralized management.
• It can also scale bandwidth-on-demand, and deploy new services rapidly.

Helping Remote and Branch Offices:

Another crucial role of SD-WAN technology is its ability to connect remote offices. The rise of remote work and branch offices has further increased the importance of robust connectivity solutions. If an organization relies on traditional WAN, they won’t be able to connect with their remote locations.

• SD-WAN is beneficial in this regard as it helps in offering strong connectivity and consistent user experience.
• Across the distributed locations, you will get effective network connectivity.
• With SD-WAN, remote workers can securely access corporate resources and applications from anywhere.
• In addition to this, branch offices will benefit from centralized management.to
• Also, enterprises will witness improved performance and reduced reliance on expensive MPLS circuits.

Optimizing application and device performance:

This is a cloud computing and SaaS applications era where every organization is looking forward for application performance. Thus, there’s a need to ensure optimal performance. When the critical applications function better, it ultimately impacts the efficiency of the organization.

• The role of SD-WAN is to addresses this challenge of application performance by intelligently routing traffic based on application requirements.
• This solution routes the traffic as per the network conditions, and performance objectives.
• It also comes with features such as application routing, and traffic prioritization. Because of these features, SD-WAN ensures that latency-sensitive applications receive the bandwidth that they require. Thus, there will be no issue of network congestion in the modern networking.

Strengthening security of the critical data

Enterprises from all sectors require a strong security policy to protect their data and information. This digital transformation is also escalating cyber threats and data breaches. But, the network security of any enterprise is non-negotiable.

• SD-WAN will optimize connectivity and also enhance security features.
• There is built-in encryption of this technology that also helps modern networking. These features mean secure tunnels and advanced threat detection capabilities.
• So, SD-WAN solutions provide end-to-end encryption and segmentation. This will help mitigate the risk of unauthorized access. In addition to this, there will be no data breaches.
• This integrated approach of SD-WAN ensures that sensitive data remains protected at all times.

Cost Savings and Efficient for the Enterprises

If we talk about cost-efficiency, your enterprise is going to save huge because of SD-WAN. It has several technical capabilities that deliver tangible business benefits in terms of cost savings and operational efficiency.

The use of traditional networks and WAN can create a huge financial burden on the enterprise. To prevent this, the best way would be to adopt the technology of SD-WAN.

• By replacing MPLS WAN, your enterprise will be able to save more affordable broadband links. In addition to this, organizations can significantly reduce network costs without impacting performance or reliability.
• Moreover, automation features of SD-WAN will streamline network operations. So, there will be no or less manual overhead which will free up the IT resources

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that SD-WAN has emerged as a transformative technology in modern enterprise networking. This is because SD-WAN is useful in empowering organizations to innovate and thrive in the digital world. Along with this, SD-WAN enables businesses to various new opportunities and accelerate their success towards digital transformation. As we have now understood the role of SD-WAN, it becomes easy to deploy them.