Connectivity and reliability are the key components in order to be successful in business today.
With so many users working from home, traffic being routed through data centers slows down. Applications, data and other business resources are no longer limited to the data center. Companies have moved to a distributed model where critical resources are spread across multi-cloud, data center and remote locations. This strategy provides a high degree of flexibility, combined with remarkable cost savings that empowers organizations to compete more effectively. This strategy has also resulted in an evolving network edge that requires organizations to rethink how critical traffic and resources are accessed, managed and secured.
While some organizations have attempted to address this challenge on their own, redesigning their network infrastructure with solutions such as SD-Wan and SASE, this is not possible for a growing number of businesses. Because of the complex nature and time consuming of deploying, managing and securing resources across a distributed and dynamic organization is driving customers to seek out service providers to support networking projects and managing all of the elements of an SD-Wan solution.
Many SD-Wan solutions are limited in the scope of the capabilities and services they provide. The wrong SD-Wan solution can affect the outcome of deployment costs.
Most SD-Wan solutions do not include integrated security capabilities. SD-Wan solutions lacking robust security features require MSPs & MSSPs to be integrated, deployed and manage an overlay of complementary security services.
Many SD-WAN solutions are not able to prioritize traffic based on user, devices, and applications. This lack of application-aware steering not only degrades end-user performance, but also can impact service-level agreements (SLAs).
Choosing the Right SD-WAN Solution is Critical
There are some key elements that should be included in the selection process. Flexibility is one of those critical elements, and far too many legacy SD-WAN solutions were not designed with the sort of flexibility in mind that many businesses require.
Scalability: Look for an SD-WAN solution that comes in a variety of footprints, such as built-in LTE/5G to enable high-speed failover should the local connections become unreliable or unstable. Details like this ensure that you can support everything from the largest branch offices to thousands of remote users desktops.
Security: The lack of integrated security in most SD-WAN solutions means that IT teams have to create an overlay security solution to compensate for losing the traditional stack of security provided at the head end by eliminating the MPLS connection. A truly flexible SD-WAN solution should be able to provide consistent security that is fully integrated into an on-premise device, as well as a cloud-native security service that can function as part of a SASE solution.
What’s a SASE?
Secure access service edge or SASE (pronounced sassy) is a network architecture that rolls SD-Wan and security into a cloud service simplifying WAN deployment, improving efficiency, security, and to provide appropriate bandwidth per application.
Multi-Cloud: Between public and private clouds or any cloud and data center, a virtual SD-Wan solution can provide secure and reliable connectivity. Run natively in any public or private cloud environment, these SD-Wan deployments need to be configured and organized by utilizing a management system that integrates all connectivity, security and networking into a single console. In addition, look for an SD-Wan solution that includes integrated connectivity and application security functionality that can be used into a branch office which most includes a LAN.
By keeping these information in mind, you can deploy across home offices, branch offices, main offices and multi-cloud environments. You’ll also be able to reduce cost and intricacy of SD-Wan deployments.
For more information about how SD-Wan can help your organization, contact Konnect Up Solutions at (510) 972-3028 or visit our website at https://konnectupsolutions.com/
