SDWAN Design and Implementation

What is SD-WAN?

A Software-defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is a virtual WAN architecture that allows enterprises to leverage any combination of transport services – including MPLS, LTE and broadband internet services – to securely connect users to applications.

An SD-WAN uses a centralized control function to securely and intelligently direct traffic across the WAN. This increases application performance, resulting in enhanced user experience, increased business productivity and reduced costs for IT.

Traditional WANs based on conventional routers are not cloud-friendly. They typically require backhauling all traffic – including that destined to the cloud – from branch offices to a hub or headquarters data center where advanced security inspection services can be applied. The delay caused by backhaul impairs application performance resulting in a poor user experience and lost productivity. Unlike the traditional router-centric WAN architecture, the SD-WAN model is designed to fully support applications hosted in on-premise data centers, public or private clouds and SaaS solutions such as Salesfore.com, Workday, Office365 and Dropbox, while delivering the highest levels of application performance.

Why SD-WAN?

As applications continue to migrate to the cloud, networking professionals are quickly realizing that traditional WANs were never architected for the cloud.

Applications are no longer hosted solely in enterprise data centers. They are also hosted in:

The traditional router-centric model that backhauls traffic from the branch to headquarters to the internet and back again no longer makes sense.

Backhaul adds latency – or delay – that impairs application performance resulting in poor user experience and lost productivity. Employees often report that their business apps run faster at home or on their mobile devices than at the office. 

Geographically distributed enterprises are embracing SD-WANs at an accelerating pace because they help businesses become more agile, enhance business productivity and dramatically lower costs.

SD-WAN benefits for enterprises