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SD-WAN business benefits: 7 Advantages over MPLS

Expereo team

The Internet had been around long before the world first heard of Software-defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) and its business benefits. However, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that millions of homes and offices connected through broadband to the Web on a 24/7 basis. To adapt to an increased demand for Internet connectivity and guaranteed stable networks, central management at enterprises opted for Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) solutions.

Fundamentally, MPLS connections allows a router to place a ‘label’ on packets of Internet traffic, each label explaining where the information needs to go next. This reduces processing time at each router. A speed augmentation that was welcomed by big businesses twenty years ago.

But we’re in the 2020s now, and the challenges businesses face today are unprecedented to say the least. In the early 00s, digital transformation was unknown, corporate applications were not in the cloud and users were not accessing the Internet from mobile devices. MPLS was an adequate solution for the challenges facing businesses then but aren’t as flexible to handle today’s.

Cloud-fueled global enterprises demand a high-performance, application-agnostic managed network solution. That’s where SD-WAN comes into play.

To understand what Software-defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is, we need to first understand Wide Area Network (WAN).

WAN refers to any form of telecommunications network where information travels between devices in different locations via either Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), lines, or wireless networks.

If WAN didn’t exist enterprise connectivity would be restricted to specific areas or geographic regions. As businesses grow and become global organizations, WAN allows them to share data between branch offices and stay connected.

Historically, the two most popular WAN connectivity options have been:

Businesses have tended to prefer MPLS as it is essentially a private network, and therefore considered reliable and secure. However, as previously said, MPLS is not designed to handle the high volumes of WAN traffic that result from SaaS applications and cloud adoption. In addition, because of its private aspect, it is also an expensive network solution.

SD-WAN is a newer approach to WAN. It’s a product (not a network infrastructure) that acts as an overlay for companies’ existing network solution (MPLS, broadband Internet or a hybrid model). It separates the network control and management processes from the underlying hardware and making them available as software. Just like any application.

By using a centralized control function, SD-WAN enables the secure and intelligent steering of traffic across multiple sites, adjusting bandwidth where it’s needed most. This allows enterprises to enjoy the benefits of broadband without uprooting everything from the ground.

SD-WAN presents a flexible option for those looking for an alternative to MPLS or hybrid network configurations. That’s because SD-WAN can manage multiple types of connections and route traffic over the best path in real-time. Virtualizing your business network can result in endless benefits. Let’s have a look at each below.

SD-WAN offers faster business connectivity by allowing for multiple high-bandwidth WAN links simultaneously (such as MPLS and Internet), as well as for dual service providers. When you combine different types of connectivity together like this, performance is naturally optimized.

On top of that, SD-WAN also uses Artificial Intelligence to route traffic from one location to another and re-route to the highest-performing available link, maximizing capacity and improving user experience especially for SaaS and cloud-based applications such as Slack, SalesForce, and Office365.

Even when requirements change and more bandwidth is needed in different applications, SD-WAN quickly responds accordingly. For example, Zoom video calls might require significant bandwidth, whereas a group of employees on Twitter can be pushed to the lowest priority. This way, business-critical applications have minimal latency.

MPLS functions via a private network. This avoids most security pitfalls, but the limitations to network connectivity remain. Conversely, direct access to the public Internet can be used to improve user experience, but causes safety concerns.

SD-WAN is secure by design. That means encrypted end-to-end tunnels (128 bits and up) are built across the whole network (whether 0% or 100% of it is carried on public infrastructure). This is great for in-house firewalls or access gateways, and doesn’t rule out additional security at authentication or application levels.

SD-WAN introduces a network overlay that lets businesses respond to changing operational needs quickly. Since it doesn’t rely on the underlay (it’s a virtual network solution), it can be rapidly deployed and adjusted to the customer’s needs.

Company-wide connectivity requirements can be orchestrated from a central management dashboard that offers full network visibility across branches. By having a 360, real-time view of their business Internet performance, companies have full control of their network. And you can continuously optimize network performance as the situation demands.

Businesses are increasingly deploying latency-sensitive applications onto the cloud. It makes their workforce more agile, collaborative and productive, ultimately increasing their competitive advantage.

With many enterprises using of multi-cloud environments, complexity has skyrocketed to such an extent that only an SD-WAN solution can manage it.

SD-WAN introduces dynamic capabilities to enhance connectivity to the cloud, enabling the use of multiple underlay links to manage and steer user traffic depending on the best performing path, the type of data (voice, video, etc.), and its destination.

When it comes to SD-WAN, customers are not locked into additional services, which makes SD-WAN a much cheaper option than traditional WAN like MPLS. In fact, we have seen an average reduction of about 40% in fees when companies make the switch to SD-WAN.

That’s mainly because SD-WAN allows companies to pick-and-mix access technologies, carriers, hardware and other network components to suit specific needs. For example, both Internet broadband and mobile 4G are typically cheap connectivity options. By choosing those links for low-priority traffic, instead of the expensive MPLS network, companies can significantly reduce budget.

One of the main SD-WAN business benefits is that it leverages multiple network links to enhance the user experience. However, it’s worth mentioning it also improves site reliability.

A secure overlay provided by SD-WAN can combine a highly-personalized and diversified mixture of network links. This creates a safety net and virtually eliminate the fear of network outages. In a nutshell, SD-WAN allows businesses to “supercharge” their network, making it more secure and resilient.

For all the reasons mentioned above, SD-WAN can have a huge impact on business operations and its turnover. It ensures that company services remain at peak levels; determined by business priority, not as dictated by network hardware.

And in times when competitors are only a click away, a minor delay in response time is the fine line between a new lead and a lost opportunity.

But more than that, network connectivity should be treated as the very foundation upon which the rest of a company’s agile work environment will be built. With SD-WAN, organizations not only future-proof themselves, they can also enjoy an excellent return on investment.

The benefits of switching to SD-WAN are endless, and there are a lot of competent service providers available to help you switch from MPLS to SD-WAN. The problem is, many different components can affect your transition to SD-WAN and overall network performance, from conducting a thorough site survey to preparing adequate bandwidth. A dedicated MSP should be able to help you with that.

At Expereo we design, implement, and monitor all aspects that power your SD-WAN. We understand the international regulatory framework, how it relates to SD-WAN and can guide your business in optimizing your network performance.

When you work with Expereo, you gain dedicated project managers, deep experience, and responsive support to make your business transformation to an Internet-based, cloud-centric SD-WAN smooth and pain-free.

Get in touch today to discuss your needs.