The primary goal of every organizational network is to offer fast, frictionless networking that optimizes productivity and minimal network stress. But with virtualization, there is increased use of third-party platforms like cloud, hosted applications, and big data analytics, which stresses networks. Productivity and, eventually, profitability are impacted by poor networking. A single solution that has come to resolve all of these pain points is SD Wan technology.
Software Defined-Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is a centralized software application running a virtual network over the hardware. It is a hybrid technology that combines software-defined networking(SDN) with Wide Area Networking (WAN). SD-WAN uses multiple potential transport links over traditional dedicated circuits and currently has become the most efficient networking solution for cloud computing.
Hence, globally, sd wan technology adoption has been rapid at a CAGR of 21.64 between 2020 and 2026. The revenue forecast for SD-WAN is expected to exceed USD 8 billion by 2026 and achieve USD 2.7 billion in North America by the end of 2022.
What are the Challenges in IT networking that SD-WAN improves?
IT networking is currently bogged down by issues of irregular bandwidth, poor hosted application experience, and difficulty in offsite backup due to insufficient bandwidth. Many businesses are exploring SD-WAN solutions from service providers and benefiting directly from such outsourced services.
This post focuses on the improvements that an sd wan solution brings to a network. Driven by the twin circuits of the SD Wan solution, real-time application performance is enhanced because of the application routing and path conditioning, apart from removing the class of service from the inherent networks already running.
Improving network performance: SD-WAN solutions
Some of the ways in which the software-defined wide area network can improve the performance of a business are as follows:
ImprovesSpeed and availability
Traditional wide area networks are known to use backup circuits but are in passive mode and opted for only when the primary circuit fails, choking critical applications like VoIP and unified communications that are lag-sensitive and bandwidth-intensive. However, WAN can be optimized by using sd wan solutions. It increases visibility and flexibility and moves voice packets to the top of the priority list; sometimes, hybrid deployments are also adopted for rapid shifts in traffic for connections relying on public internet and MPLS.
Prioritizes load balancing
Given that networks use applications that use different levels of services, SD Wan solutions offer flexible pathways per the application. Hence, performance-intensive applications can no longer congest networks and impact latency-sensitive applications with sd wan technologies. It resolves congestion by diverting traffic to channels that offer easy flow. Thus, data flow becomes reliable, and networks no longer experience vulnerabilities due to dropped data packets or blocked or lost data.
Affordable Flexibilit
The biggest challenge with WAN and optimization is using expensive, branded routers at every site. For IT ecosystems with multiple locations, local or overseas networking becomes very expensive. Additionally, making changes or expanding the network also becomes very challenging. With SD wan solutions, businesses can run on any connection type, and most sites can be up and running in the shortest turnaround time. Investment in router infrastructure for sd wan solutions is typically not up-front and is on a use-basis, helping companies quickly transition to enhanced networking solutions. Additionally, no maintenance contracts or professional service providers are needed to set up the network. SD-WAN's most significant advantage is that configuring and deploying networks and hardware profiles is simplified, as all WAN allocation is automatically handled remotely on SD-WAN.
Overcome Low latency with SD Wan solutions
One of the essential points of using SD wan solution is to improve any unstable links that rely on local broadband. This technology uses path conditioning techniques to improve low-quality internet to deliver high-performance networks. It improves resource utilization, lowers bandwidth costs, enhances customer experience, and improves productivity. This is mainly in the case of VoIP applications. Many vendors use forward error correction or packet order correction, so they don't have to re-transmit packets. A forward error correction injection and Packet Order Correction packets are resequenced. Hence, SD Wan will lower the retransmission packets and ensure call quality even when connections are prolonged and unreliable.
SD-WAN for class of service over the internet
The most significant advantage of using the software-defined wide area network is that there are exact details of the end-to-end tunnels that an SD wan device supports at every site. Hence there is automated control in managing the data that these devices send. On a traditional WAN, a Class of Service is defined for the router, but it is ignorant of the loads and data handling at other devices. With SD-WAN Business Intent Overlays, the performance of applications can be maintained easily. No prioritization is applied when the network is not congested and the Service Level Agreements (SLA) are met. However, when the network is congested, Business Intent Overlays prioritize the application on other network devices, which will minimize their traffic to handle priority.
Enhance cloud application performance
The primary advantage of using an SD-WAN solution is enhancing the cloud application performance. This is because the solution identifies the easiest or the best route. The remote side can directly connect over the internet using the SD-WAN solution. It provides the shortest route to the application and hence improves performance.
Appropriate security and routing recognized apps
Traditional WAN is known to send external traffic defended by corporate firewalls. However, the increase in the number of applications on the internet has impacted performance. With SD-WAN solutions, known applications can set up SLA requirements for trusted applications, like Microsoft 365, to be routed directly or to web proxy to lower latency.
SaaS and IaaS performance improves with virtual devices
SD-WAN vendors are known to improve the performance of cloud applications by enabling the license deployment in the form of an Infrastructure allowing the application connections at both ends to be treated as one.
Secure connections in comparison to IPSec
SD Wan allows controlling rotation of keys, whereas traditional WAN uses only IPSec to configure hub devices leading to human errors. Automated configuration of the hub device on SD-WAN ensures optimized secure connections.
Final thoughts
Optimizing WAN is the networking solution that every organization needs for application acceleration. This can be in the form of software-as-a-service(SaaS) or Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). Spectra's SD wan device and solutions improve productivity, unlock innovation and, strengthen security, spur growth, leading to competitive advantage.
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