Unlike VPN, SD-WAN prioritizes business-critical applications and real-time services. It lets branch offices access the Internet directly, reduces costly backhauling, and delivers higher performance. IT operations teams can increase bandwidth as needed, a feature that helps future-proof businesses. Setting up and deploying SD-WAN for modern businesses have many advantages. It is cost-effective and reduces initial costs and ongoing maintenance.
4 Advantages Of SD-WAN For Modern Businesses
Cost-Effectiveness
Modern business needs a network that is fast, agile, and cost-effective. Many legacy WAN networks have reached their limits. They need help to provide anywhere-anytime customer experiences and meet employees’ demands. These old networks can result in network outages. Also, they result in poor application performance, frustrated users, and skyrocketing IT costs. SD-WAN provides a solution to these challenges. Modern businesses can access cloud applications without backhauling traffic over the core network. SD-WAN eliminates expensive MPLS circuits and equips better bandwidth at a fraction of the cost. Also, it helps businesses to focus on critical business applications and secure data transfer over the Internet.
Modern businesses can save as much as 75% by replacing expensive MPLS circuits with an SD-WAN. Also, SD-WAN can connect distant locations to the central office using low-cost broadband or even 5G connections. Also, it provides exceptional security and performance. By virtualizing the network’s edges, professionals at Versa Networks make adding new offices or users easy and avoid costly equipment refresh cycles with SD-WAN. Also, it eliminates the need to buy dedicated WAN hardware, reducing deployment time and manual setup tasks for IT teams.
Most solutions also allow enterprises to use a mix of transport methods. That includes MPLS, commodity/broadband internet, xDSL, 3G/4G/5G, and LTE cellular networks. It helps to leverage the best available bandwidth for optimal performance.
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Scalability
Unlike MPLS, which can be expensive and slow to deploy, SD-WAN is software-based and delivered through the cloud. It’s fast to set up and adjustable as a business grows. This makes it ideal for small and medium-sized companies, especially those growing. The overlay network of an SD-WAN can connect many Internet connections seamlessly. Also, it can optimize traffic and focus on mission-critical applications relying on real-time performance data. It helps them to get the bandwidth and performance needed to operate effectively. Another great feature of an SD-WAN solution is that it detects and redirects a network connection to a backup one. This means that a sudden loss of Internet connectivity won’t affect your employees’ ability to work and keep customers happy.
Finally, an SD-WAN can reduce the number of devices installed at branches or remote locations in modern businesses. It can save hardware and maintenance costs. Also, it can help improve WAN security by linking a firewall, routing, WAN optimization, and different components into a single platform. As businesses acclimate to life in a post-pandemic world, they seek flexible networking solutions. Traditional models may need help to handle the increased volume of network traffic. It is mainly as businesses continue to adopt the cloud and increase remote working.
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Flexibility
An agile network is important for a modern business. With more and more employees working remotely, a flexible grid is more important than ever. It ensures everyone can access the critical applications they need to do their jobs. Traditional WAN solutions could be more flexible, requiring them to backhaul all traffic from remote offices to headquarters. That adds latency and slows down application performance. By contrast, SD-WAN provides a more flexible connectivity solution by optimizing application performance. It uses centralized control functions and applies a policy-driven approach that prioritizes mission-critical apps.
Moreover, an SD-WAN solution can connect many sites to the Internet. It uses low-cost local Internet connections and provides direct cloud access. It reduces costs by eliminating the need for MPLS circuits and reducing the data traveling over the WAN. Also, an SD-WAN solution can track the performance of all WAN connections. Based on business priorities, it can automate route traffic to the most reliable link. It improves application resiliency, reduces cost, and increases security.
Furthermore, modern businesses can deploy an SD-WAN solution quickly. It allows modern businesses to connect different locations without impacting existing configurations. That is especially beneficial for extending into new markets or opening new branches. Also, it makes it easy to connect to a temporary work location, which would be complex with traditional technologies.
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Security
Business operations are driven by cloud applications and remote employees. These rely on reliable, high-performance connections. But, a single outage can cause expensive productivity loss and customer dissatisfaction. A developed SD-WAN solution includes different security measures that can help protect modern business operations. For example, it can provide automatic failover to backup connections during a network outage.
Additionally, it can segment network traffic to prioritize critical applications and real-time services. It can improve application performance and user experience. Also, an advanced SD-WAN solution can help modern businesses to reduce costs. It can lower operating expenses by allowing low-cost local Internet access, providing direct cloud access, and reducing the amount of data transmitted over the WAN. It can also provide centralized network management and visibility from a single pane of glass.
Moreover, businesses must leverage Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) to replace hardware with software at the network’s edge. It can improve network performance and efficiency. An advanced SD-WAN can help modern businesses speed up digital transformation and workforce mobility. It can provide protected networking and security services, improving the employee experience and accelerating ROI.
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