In a rapidly changing world, Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) has emerged as relevant equipment to meet the demands and expectations of digital business transformation.
By the end of 2023, 60% of enterprises will have implemented SD-WAN. With the normalization of hybrid working and the use of the cloud, organizations have adapted their teams to the current environment. This leads to a virtual generalization of the uses of applications. The significant growth of networked applications and the number of IoT-connected devices have put tremendous pressure on WANs. During the pandemic, SD-WAN has played a central role in transforming enterprise connectivity.
SD-WAN meets the expectations of digital transformation
Traditional WAN infrastructure was not designed for the “hybrid worker” era. The same is true for traditional network architectures that weren’t designed to handle the workloads and complexities of most digital transformation initiatives. More worryingly, business-critical services are often spread across multiple cloud services, and can compromise network performance.
To meet these new needs, enterprises are adopting SD-WAN to reduce operating costs and support the new applications and services of digital transformation. This technology simplifies the management and operation of a wide area network. It also brings a number of concrete business benefits and allows companies to make their network more efficient and dynamic in terms of network resource consumption. The benefits of SD-WAN software-defined wide area network technology come from the inherent flexibility and agility of this type of network.
SD-WAN benefits businesses by eliminating expensive routing hardware and instead providing connectivity and services from a single site. It also has the advantage of increased flexibility. It allows businesses to scale connectivity on demand. This flexibility also means companies can avoid oversizing. It further reduces overall WAN expenses. While it’s not always easy to quantify the benefits and savings of an SD-WAN solution or compare them to deployment capital expenditures, this solution helps improve overall network performance and worker productivity. collaborators, providing quick and easy access to business applications.
In concrete terms, how does SD-WAN work?
SD-WAN can be configured to prioritize critical traffic and real-time services such as voice over IP (VoIP) and then direct it to the most efficient route. By facilitating mission-critical applications with reliable, high-performance connections, CIOs and their teams can reduce packet loss and latency issues, improving team productivity.
Additionally, SD-WAN enables direct cloud access in remote locations, eliminating backhaul traffic, meaning employees can directly access cloud applications regardless of location without burdening the core network with additional traffic to manage and secure. SD-WAN improves the performance of cloud applications by prioritizing business-critical applications and enabling services to communicate directly with the internet. Digital transformation is a double-edged sword. While it can improve customer satisfaction and expand market reach, it can also expose a business to significant security risks. Fortunately, many SD-WAN solutions offer built-in security.
Deploying SD-WAN efficiently solves countless problems. Businesses can leverage digitalization, multicloud, storage, and application consumption to deliver differentiated experiences for their customers, teams, or supply chain. As CIOs and network managers across industries focus on connectivity requirements for the future, now is the time to focus on the biggest drivers that make SD-WAN the ideal solution for today and the challenges ahead.