Moving Away from Traditional WAN
Traditional networks can no longer support businesses that are moving to the Cloud. The market is moving towards Software-Defined Wide Area Network, or SD-WAN, as the trusted, most reliable network. With multiple distant office locations running applications and retrieving data hosted in the Cloud, each branch relies on speedy and reliable connectivity. That branch in New York needs to connect to the same applications at the same speed as the Los Angeles branch. Not to mention contracted workers, remote workers, and work from home employees that need fast, reliable connection to your Cloud applications and software. Traditional WANs just can’t keep up with all of these increasing network demands.
Traditional WAN connections like MPLS use special hardware systems and circuits to connect geographically distant branch offices to a central network. With all branches of your business pointed at the Cloud from great distances, bandwidth can be low and latency high on traditional WAN networks. This can make work frustrating, slow, and can cost your business valuable time. With SD-WAN, you can easily scale bandwidth if your company begins to rapidly grow. Also, bandwidth and firewall are distributed to each location without needing IT management on-site at each branch location.
Agility, Performance, Cost Savings
SD-WAN intelligently directs traffic and provides control over network/application performance. This reduces the cost for IT organizations as they no longer have to tediously manage and monitor traffic. As your business needs more bandwidth and an expanding network, SD-WAN can help scale accordingly. On traditional WAN systems, configuring new or existing infrastructure requires monotonous tinkering with CLI (command line interface) code whereas SD-WAN allows IT administrators to easily and efficiently make network configurations to all branches on one platform and at one time.
Moving to SD-WAN gives businesses greater agility, performance, and cost savings. SD-WAN can be installed with internet connectivity in 1-7 days, while traditional MPLS connectivity can take months to install. Each branch location has the ability to connect to Cloud based applications without having to connect back to the data center hub to access them.
The Bottom Line
Utilizing the Cloud without SD-WAN is like having a luxurious sports car without any road to drive it fast on. You’ve got your data and production in the Cloud, ensure you have fast and reliable access to it with SD-WAN connectivity!
