SDWANs have emerged as a big trend in the field of enterprise networking. The technology has proved itself a great substitute for legacy networks to link distant offices to resources hosted in the cloud and data center.
SDWAN solutions with real-time access control and threat protection are great for organizations that are rapidly scaling. Undoubtedly, these solutions have great potential. But different organizations have different needs. Understanding the differences between the various forms of these solutions will help you make the right choice.
SDWAN – What Is It?
SDWAN stands for Software-Defined Wide Area Network. It streamlines enterprise connectivity to far-flung locations. Thus, it imparts greater flexibility, centralized monitoring and control, and lower WAN costs. Some functionalities of SDWAN are:
- It combines network links serving a specific place into one pool of efficiency accessible for all services and applications.
- It defines and handles network traffic and policies centrally without the need for manual configuration at every device.
- It customizes connectivity and bandwidth to fulfil the requirements of particular locations, users, or network services.
The Working of SDWAN
SDWANs have become critical to address the challenges of the digital transformation era. It utilizes a centralized control feature to intelligently and securely transmit traffic across the WAN.
It, in turn, enhances application performance and provides a better user experience. Consequently, it results in greater business agility, productivity, and minimized IT costs.
How to Find out Which SDWAN is Right for You
Here are the different SDWAN deployment options to help you find out which one is suitable for you.
- Internet-based SDWAN– This type of solution utilizes appliances at every enterprise location, either the back of routers or substituting them as branch connections to the internet and the enterprise network.
This type of SDWAN can be deployed swiftly. It also provides good application and network monitoring. It is suitable for those who want regional deployments. However, this type does not confront global application performance problems and does not have a network component.
- SDWAN as-a-Service – With SDWAN as a service, organizations get SDWAN similar to the way they purchase cloud services through a consumption model. It blends the reliability and security of a private network with cost-efficiency, flexibility, and quick deployment of the internet.
This type of SDWAN imparts consistent and reliable performance. It works well with on-premise and cloud applications. It also provides Private Network Connectivity. However, it’s not very appropriate for IT departments that desire to develop their specific network infrastructure.
- Telco or MSP managed SDWAN, with it, the customer makes a payment to a service provider for installing and delivering connectivity and appliances the service may need. The managed service is generally deployed utilizing some of the similar hardware to support SDWANs that are internet-based.
It will be based on the public internet for giving accessibility to cloud applications. MSP-managed SDWAN provides reliable performance. It also imparts consistent latencies within a place.
You can get direct PaaS/SaaS/IaaS connectivity. It is a fully managed service with support. However, it can be delivered as a pop-centric service, which affects the SASE integration. Customers may need to pay for extra functionality. It may also not comprise WAN optimization.
The market size of SDWAN is increasing swiftly. There is no doubt that this technology is an intrinsic component of a rising shift in the networking environment.
SDWAN solutions that provide centralized management allow you to build a base for next-generation technologies that align with business innovations. Thus, it imparts you with ease in conducting your business.