Why SD-WAN As a Service is Essential for Cloud Adoption

SD-WAN is one of the most effective ways to optimize WAN performance, improve security and increase visibility. It can also help companies migrate to the cloud more easily.

However, achieving these results requires skilled people and a proper organizational structure. To get there, you must create a cloud adoption plan.

Improved Application Performance

Cloud-based applications can deliver superior user experiences but require network resources to function significantly. This is where SD-WAN as a service comes in.

One of the key selling points of SD-WAN as a service is its ability to shift traffic between different transport methods and tiers, which improves last-mile performance. The flexibility to choose connections based on latency sensitivity provides an economically optimal solution that can help drive improved application performance across the enterprise.

Another major pro of SD-WAN is its centralized control and automation features, which make it possible to set up secure connections to remote user sites quickly and efficiently. This primarily benefits businesses hosting local applications with users at multiple locations.

Allowing remote employees to access applications via a separate secure connection with SD-WAN eliminates the need for a firewall on their home devices. It reduces network bottlenecks by removing the need to backhaul traffic through their enterprise network.

This is a significant benefit for many enterprises because it means fewer expensive circuits in their WAN and lower costs overall. This is particularly true for businesses with many remote branch offices or work-from-home employees, as these can be expensive to maintain.

Improved Security

SD-WAN, as a service, provides security that helps organizations protect network traffic from outside threats. This includes features like data encryption and firewall capabilities and tight integration with cloud-based security functions.

Unlike traditional routers that use IP addresses and TCP/IP protocols to route traffic, SD-WANs optimize network connections using software-based configurations. This allows data to take the shortest path to its destination, providing its best performance.

Another key benefit of SD-WAN is its ability to route internet-bound traffic directly from the branch without backhauling it through the primary data center. This capability is essential for cloud adoption. This feature is a big part of why many companies are adopting SD-WAN.

In addition to improving application performance and enabling cloud migration, SD-WAN helps enterprises provide secure remote access to business applications and data when employees are on the go or working from home. This is essential for a hybrid environment where workers use both on-premises and cloud infrastructures.

As the cloud continues to evolve, enterprises will require network connectivity, security, and WAN optimization services to be delivered in a cloud-delivered manner. To achieve this, they need a platform approach that leverages a unified services architecture that reaches end-to-end.

Enhanced Business Intelligence

Using an SD-WAN as a service allows businesses to deploy applications across multiple locations and maintain consistent high-performance levels. This reduces operational costs and improves customer service.

The service also provides enhanced business intelligence. It enables companies to monitor the performance of WAN connections in real time and optimize traffic routes at a highly granular level. This data can be used to determine which transport method is most cost-effective for each application and ensure that the WAN delivers the best possible experience to end-users.

In addition, the service can provide a centralized control panel that allows companies to manage network traffic through a single pane of glass. This helps to boost security by preventing hackers from accessing critical business applications.

Additionally, SD-WAN supports bandwidth-hungry apps and higher performance needs by prioritizing them. It uses real-time network performance monitoring to identify the optimum path for each application and directs traffic to the most appropriate destination.

Providing a centralized control panel and automated policy-based framework simplifies ITs ability to define, control, and change business requirements in their branches, data centers, and cloud/SaaS. This allows ITs to make better decisions about how they use their network, enhancing business agility and enabling them to support their digital transformation.

In addition to improved security, an SD-WAN as a service also provides enhanced business intelligence that is essential for companies that want to implement cloud computing. This intelligence allows companies to automate network traffic flows and boost bandwidth on demand, allowing them to connect more cloud technologies to their existing enterprise networks. This frees IT teams to focus on other strategic areas of the organization.

Scalability

SD-WAN as a service allows enterprises to deploy and scale network connections on demand. This enables enterprises to meet the needs of a modern workforce, with the cloud and mobility supporting business goals across multiple locations.

One of the key benefits of SD-WAN is that it allows a single pane of glass management for WAN connections, with networking and security capabilities available everywhere and on any device. This is a significant advantage compared to traditional WAN solutions, which require introducing point products to address every network function.

This is not only difficult to implement but can also be costly. Enterprises can also experience a poor user experience due to a lack of granular, end-to-end visibility.

To overcome this challenge, a business-driven SD-WAN intelligently monitors all underlay transport services and automatically directs traffic down a converged or LAN-based link when needed. This approach delivers sub-second failover, preventing disruptive application interruptions.

In addition, the session-centric approach AI-driven SD-WAN uses ensures granular end-to-end visibility of latency, jitter, and packet loss for each session. This allows a more proactive and nuanced approach to delivering performance-based SLAs.

In a world where businesses increasingly use multiple cloud and SaaS applications, implementing the right WAN strategy is crucial to ensuring high application performance and resiliency across many cloud applications and devices. SD-WAN is essential for cloud adoption, providing consistent and predictable performance for all critical applications.