With the growth of a business, the infrastructure gets more complex each day — it’s inevitable. However, with this increased complexity, it’s getting more difficult to have an overview of everything that is going on in the company — let alone in branches located in other cities.
Therefore, like any organization, you want to include only carefully curated features and technology into your infrastructure. One of the elements that businesses have been including in their organization as a faster, stronger, more reliable, and cost-effective way to operate is SD-WAN.
What Is SD-WAN?
Software-defined WAN, more commonly referred to as SD-WAN, is the technology that utilizes the capabilities of Software Defined Networking (SDN) to allocate traffic on a wide area network (also known as WAN). What makes SD-WAN more effective is that it is automated to detect the best route for the traffic of applications that passes through the cloud, internet, and branch offices.
Essentially, its purpose is to connect the users and customers with the application in question in a faster, more reliable, and safe manner — and it does so by using the most suitable service that’s accessible. The technology is managed from a single centralized controller, which then sends the information to linked devices.
The technology is an alternative to WAN.
WAN has shown that it can’t handle increased traffic for scaling companies or issues that might come up for organizations that keep adding new elements to their infrastructure while also enabling people worldwide access. On its way to replacing the traditional and outdated WAN, the technology of SD-WAN is a layer that enables more reliable and less expensive traffic and connection for users and companies.
Key Benefits of SD-WAN
Businesses use SD-WAN because it cuts costs, makes for more reliable traffic, and it’s more effective overall. Routers of SD-WAN rarely require manual configuration and traveling to branch offices. Instead, IT teams can reprogram endpoint devices from remote locations.
Namely, it can be managed from one place in real-time. One of the centralized controller’s main purposes is to enforce policies (such as cybersecurity) and provide reports or alerts from a single dashboard. That kind of centralized system is not only cost-effective but also more reliable and effective in general. Both old and new systems that you add to your network can be managed from a single centralized point.
This is especially favorable for businesses with hybrid infrastructures that have adapted to the new technologies such as the cloud but still deploy certain systems on-premises. SD-WAN technology utilizes both wireless and wired connections to provide the companies with the most bandwidth, regardless of their geographical locations.
Considering that it makes the most of the multiple connections and assigns the traffic in a way that would be most suitable for the specific link. As a result, SD-WAN abolishes high-cost MPLS by replacing it with more cost-effective commodity connections.
Customers have high expectations of the speed and performance of the apps they use. Alternatively, they lose patience and interest and close the app altogether. For users of applications that are created by businesses, this means that they’ll have a better experience and the app that runs faster, without delays.
Is SD-WAN Safe to Use?
Regardless of the technology you intend to implement, cybersecurity should never be an afterthought. As businesses have learned after the increased number of cyberattacks in the last couple of years, any new technology that is deployed requires strong policies and tools that guard it.
SD-Wan technology has been created with cybersecurity in mind, and it enforces multiple security policies as well as seeks connections that are going to be the safest for the users. However, without the proper combination of tools, the technology might raise some cybersecurity concerns.
For example, SD-WAN does extend the attack surface because it allows more locations to connect to the network of business. As a result, threat actors have more access points they can exploit.
To get the most out of SD-WAN and secure devices, apply these cybersecurity practices:
- Selectively use public internet — while it uses public internet to increase performance, it should never be used for critical communication that could reveal sensitive information, only for non-sensitive workloads
- Deploy SASE or secure access service edge to protect the network with the necessary security and access control — as they’re not ordinarily part of this technology
Should Your Business Use SD-WAN?
Your enterprise is suitable for SD-WAN technology if it:
- Expanded to new geographical locations — which means using the old and new network services at the new locations
- Needs better WAN bandwidth — because SD-WAN can combine private and public networks to produce the least delay for the company
- Seeks more resilient WAN — the kind that doesn’t interrupt workflow if a single connection is lost
- Migrated to the cloud — because SD-WAN supports and enables the wide network use of both cloud-based apps and those on-premise
This technology is the most suitable for businesses that work remotely and have been scaling. That is, those that have to distribute traffic to various branches or to their employee’s homes.
For many businesses, an alternative to WAN is a necessity. Namely, the traditional WAN setups are not suitable for the issues that appear with increased traffic — including the increased likelihood of cyberattacks.
With complex systems such as multi-cloud and applications that are deployed for use in various geographical locations, they need something more reliable — something that can handle the increased amount of traffic that’s going in and out of the applications.
While this technology is great for adding to the infrastructure of a thriving and growing business, as with any tech advances that are introduced to your systems, it’s important to think about security. Apply the top security practices mentioned above and enjoy a faster network.
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