The traditional WAN wasn’t designed for today’s cloud era and relying on more and more private circuits like MPLS is no longer a long-term strategy. Many companies are starting to have a conversation about SD-WAN by addressing the limitations of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) circuits.
1. Are you running into bandwidth limitations?
Companies may be finding it hard to provide enough bandwidth for remote workers and branch offices. But procuring more and more private/MPLS links is expensive! Studies show a single MPLS megabyte can cost up to 200x more than a broadband megabyte, every month. Instead of being locked into buying more MPLS lines, SD-WAN frees up customers to leverage a combination of public and private links like 4G and broadband. SD-WAN can improve the performance of business-critical apps and can redirect lower priority traffic over less expensive bandwidth, saving money!
2.Are you concerned about business continuity?
Reliable network connectivity and continuous access to corporate resources are now minimum requirements for doing business. Circuit aggregation capabilities within SD-WAN provide redundancy by combining low-cost DIA circuits from multiple providers. Aggregation capabilities also combine lower-cost cable or 4G connections to provide redundancy in case of failure.
3. Are you deploying more cloud applications?
The numbers don’t lie – 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2020. Businesses are already running Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps like Office 365 or Salesforce. SD-WAN technologies can direct mission-critical traffic from branch offices directly to cloud-based apps – for improved application performance. For Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or custom apps, companies can also benefit from one-click connectivity to service providers, such as Google Cloud or AWS.
4. Are you struggling with network management?
Does your company have multiple branch offices? Setting up routers and making changes to the network requires teams to travel to each branch office, costing time and money. Instead, SD-WAN lets teams control connections and edge devices remotely from a single, software-based controller. Managed SD-WAN services streamline management further across the network stack, including monitoring of applications, infrastructure, and devices.
5. Is it all or nothing?
MPLS is still ideal for connecting specific point-to-point locations like large offices or even for running sensitive, real-time applications. While MPLS is still critical, it’s clear MPLS wasn’t designed for a mobile-first, cloud-centric world. That’s why hybrid networking services are gaining traction – combining MPLS and internet-based secured overlay links. These services backhaul traffic to the data center or across branches when needed.
XSR Technology is an experienced vendor-agnostic Supplier Partner that knows the ins and outs of SD-WAN and hybrid solutions. Trust a reliable Partner to help get your business on a path towards a more flexible, cloud-centric network that grows with your demands. Get in touch with us and learn more about SD-WAN.