Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) for The Modern Networks

Organizations are deploying more applications in the cloud, implementing more devices in branch offices and consuming more bandwidth. Traditional connectivity options such as Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Frame-Relay, Leased Line etc. can be expensive and slow to provision, and provide limited bandwidth in many locations. Many organizations are looking for an agile connectivity solution for their digital transformation into the cloud era. SDWAN (software defined Wide Area Network) fundamentally creates a secure scalable fabric with the most limited amount of state on the edge device and performs most of the fabric decision making in the controller. This allows organizations to have the flexibility to make topologies as needed, add segments as needed and to be able to deliver into the environment new and old styles of capabilities while maintaining a well-developed routing environment. Key takeaways: - The combination of app content, app delivery and app consumption are resulting in an evolving WAN situation - Challenges such as poor application experiences, increased WAN services spend, and a lack of visibility and control are making it difficult for IT to provide the business with a platform to support faster innovation - Most IT organizations are interested in realizing a common set of benefits such as consistent high-quality user experiences, reduced cost, simplified operations and lower risk - The journey to the next generation software defined WAN requires considering various technical capabilities such as transport independence, ubiquitous data plane, automatically secure routed endpoints, resiliency, application aware routing, cloud readiness, simple secure network segmentation, centralized policy enforcement and layer 4-7 flexible services insertion - Migrating to a software defined WAN does not need to be difficult as long as one knows the best approach to a software-defined WAN environment.