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How can SD-WAN address my WAN challenges?

Expereo team

The idea isn’t new. Nor is the technology. But with its value proposition clearer by the day, SD-WAN is having “a moment”. From the boardroom to the box room, the cry goes up: “Let’s get SD-WAN. That’ll solve all my WAN challenges!”

As with most wishful thinking, the reality is not so clear cut.

Let’s be clear. SD-WAN isn’t just one type of technology. Even less so a one-size-fits-all type of tech. It’s not architecture, or a managed service, or a “solution” that plugs and plays straight from the box. As with all things IT, there are no quick fixes, no silver bullets, no shortcuts.

To make the most of SD-WAN’s potential to solve your WAN challenges… you need the right technologies working with it.
With the right combination, SD-WAN can deliver the critical success factors of cost/value/function as a long-term solution for your business networking. Whether your current setup is MPLS by the carrier, Tier-1 on the backbone, or a hybrid with a reputable MSP, it’s all about focusing on what matters. What matters  to each business will vary on a case-by-case basis, but there are many common WAN challenges driving SD-WAN adoption.

Software-Defined Wide Area Networking often sounds like some sort of standard protocol, like Internet Protocol (IP). But SD-WAN is not a network architecture. Nor is it an essentially fixed infrastructure, like MPLS, with defined routing tables operating on private circuits. And it’s certainly not broadband service provision from an Internet Service Provider!

These are precisely the decisions you need to think about to get the most from SD-WAN. Not the software, but what surrounds it.

So what is SD-WAN? It’s a product. A product overlaid on top of other technologies that enable it to function well, the same way cars need roads, making the entire solution fit for your business purposes, whatever they are.

So while SD-WAN solutions are by definition software-based, unlocking their value depends on hardware infrastructure, like any other application.

The real value of SD-WAN is in how it makes better use of networking infrastructure. You’ll see SD-WANs operating:

And in many cases, the underlay includes managed services from a Managed Service Provider (MSP).

For a long time in networking, the value of a network came from its ability to flexibly keep packet switching under control. This was one of the major WAN challenges.

IP builds its own pathways and routes around damage, yes. But in an MNC of any scale, all that sidestepping and shuffling costs bandwidth. So technologies like MPLS guided those packets, setting fixed routing tables your data had no choice but to follow.

An SD-WAN harks back to that flexible idea and makes it better. WANs defined in software use the flexibility of IP in an improved way, actively measuring the performance of each routing circuit to optimize and improve, nearly in real-time. When teamed with other technologies, like Enhanced Internet, their performance can be optimized even further.

Virtualizing the WAN like this carries another benefit: it has VPN capabilities practically by definition. Encrypted with the usual bells and whistles—128 bits and up—SD-WAN traffic is secured at a basic level, whether 0% or 100% of it is carried on public network infrastructure. And this doesn’t preclude you from adding additional security at the authentication or application level.

In other words, it’s secure by design. Which makes a great base for your in-house firewall or access gateways. End-to-end privacy for your business information, whatever device needs it. In fact, if SD-WAN has an overarching design goal, this is it: to keep your data flowing securely across different chunks of network gear, without caring too much what that hardware is.

Now the caveat. Whatever those bits and pieces of technology are, they still need hygiene factors:

So once again, SD-WAN performance depends on network infrastructure. In past decades, that function fell to leased lines or private networks; today, there are other options.

With that in mind, here’s the real point of difference between a poor SD-WAN… and a terrific one.

To restate our theme: if your connectivity between sites isn’t fast and reliable, the SD-WAN will suffer. You can’t change the laws of physics or the needs of virtualization algorithms. Your underlay is the secret to SD-WAN solving your WAN challenges. 

And with recent improvements in-ground and cloud connectivity among third-party solutions providers (including Managed Service Providers like Expereo) many MNCs are discovering Internet-based solutions are a superior option. Business broadband with service levels guaranteed by other technologies can offer a step-change in service—often with a step down in costs.

Now that’s a winning combo.

Imagine your solution running not on your pricey MPLS setup, or your reliable but limited Tier-1 connection, or even your private leased line, but on a solution that combines SD-WAN and Enhanced Internet, twin technologies working together.

Enhanced Internet plays together beautifully with business broadband. It’s part of Expereo’s solution suite: technology that watches over your SD-WAN, with all the applications you use every day, looking for traffic jams and go-slows as data crosses offices and borders. Then it optimizes them, smoothing the ebb and flow of everyday internet service into something much more like a private network infrastructure.

SD-WANs are a great technology, with a lot to offer today’s multinational and solves a lot of WAN challenges, especially if you make the best use of its flexibility to fit it to your needs.

Why not look at the advantages that SD-WAN could deliver for your organization with a business-capable MSP solution from Expereo?

We’re here when you’re ready.