Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) is making a huge impression throughout the industry because of its ability to positively impact an organization’s network. It provides optimization for traffic delivery by prioritizing bandwidth for the applications you depend on most.
SD-WAN capitalizes on agility and flexibility to help the flow of traffic. A virtual overlay enables intelligent routing of multiple sources of public and private internet to supply real-time management and optimization. Lower-cost connections are able to support bandwidth-intensive applications with seamless failover options that eliminate jitter and latency.
Organizations of all sizes and industries are starting to rely on SD-WAN to help eliminate their network latency issues. However, all organizations have different requirements that can change the needs of their data connectivity and routing. The healthcare provider who needs to ensure telehealth capabilities to their patients will have different needs than the manufacturer that needs to provide connectivity at all branch warehouses and critical applications.
Because of this, SD-WAN isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution and can be customized to the specific needs of an organization.
3 Deployment Models of SD-WAN
On-Premises SD-WAN
One of the main purposes of on-premises SD-WAN is to augment an existing private network like MPLS. Private networks can be expensive to manage as well as to increase bandwidth availability. SD-WAN enhances bandwidth, seamless failover options and network performance — without additional private network costs.
A remote edge appliance that performs routing and monitoring capabilities is placed at all sites. It communicates to gateways and an orchestrator server that interfaces with the RingSquared cloud. It creates multiple VPN connections to gateways that are geographically closest to the edge location. Zero-touch deployment makes opening branch locations painless, eliminating the need for an on-site technician.
SD-WAN can be implemented in a variety of ways for security capabilities. It can work alongside your existing security, such as a firewall, to integrate SD-WAN into your existing environment. While SD-WAN has basic next-generation firewall capabilities, it has cloud security and virtual firewall integration options for customers looking for more advanced security.
Hybrid SD-WAN
Hybrid SD-WAN is a good fit for organizations that are looking to migrate to the cloud but still have to maintain on-premises equipment. Deploying a hybrid model gives organizations the abilities of both an on-premises and cloud design.
Local edge devices provide mesh VPN to cloud gateways to provide optimized cloud traffic. Businesses will have the flexibility to route traffic to the application whether it lives on-premises or the cloud. The VPN technology seamlessly allows organizations to replace or augment expensive MPLS connections with commodity grade internet.
The devices are application aware and can make routing decisions based on the destination of the packet and priority levels set.
Cloud Application SD-WAN
Cloud Application SD-WAN is all about extending SD-WAN capabilities to your mission-critical cloud applications — enhancing Office 365, Salesforce, UCaaS, billing and sales applications. This design can integrate to your existing firewall solution or replace your firewall to allow for faster access to your cloud applications.
Cloud gateways that communicate with the data center are installed close to your cloud applications. This allows better traffic flow via an optimized path to your branch locations. Branch locations, as well as headquarters, will get better application performance no matter where they are located.
Conclusion
All organizations have different network needs, configurations and capabilities. The same goes for SD-WAN. All providers are different and have varying levels of SD-WAN capabilities. A model that works for you could cause more issues for the organization in the office next door. It is important to understand all the facets of how SD-WAN can impact your network prior to deployment.
RingSquared can help evaluate your network and find a solution that is specific to your needs. Start enhancing your network connections today. Contact RingSquared for an SD-WAN consultation.
