SD-WAN has become very popular in the industry recently, and more and more enterprise customers are preparing or have already launched SD-WAN. At this time of prosperity, all kinds of SD-WAN suppliers naturally take turns and overwhelmed. Let's also take a look at SD-WAN.
Over the past few years, with the proliferation of mobile office, cloud computing technology, applications, and multiple delivery models, data analysis, media traffic, storage requirements, and data backup have increased for many enterprises.
With more data being transferred between data centers, cloud environments, branch offices and other remote locations, enterprise networks are becoming more complex and unpredictable. WAN is the connection method of enterprises. With the digital transformation and business diversification of enterprises, as well as the impact of the data explosion, the current traffic transmitted in the WAN has caused the WAN to be overwhelmed.
In response to the diverse network connection needs of enterprises and the pursuit of cost-effectiveness, the concept of SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) was formally proposed in 2014 and quickly became popular within three years of its birth. Now, SD-WAN has been widely recognized by operators and mainstream network equipment manufacturers, and has become the most valued option for enterprise networking.
According to a Gartner report, only 1 percent of enterprises deployed SD-WAN in 2016, but by the end of 2019, SD-WAN deployments are expected to grow to 30 percent.
As its name implies, SD-WAN is typically characterized by a software-defined (Software Defined) control model and WAN optimization services (ie, WAN optimization). The software-defined control mode solves the problem of refined management of various network resources, security policies and application performance mainly based on network bandwidth; at the same time, through centralized management and virtualization, it reduces the network access and IT of enterprise branches. Management complexity, thereby saving the labor cost of enterprise branch IT management.
1. Agile advantages
SD-WAN routers can combine the bandwidth of multiple WAN connections. Businesses using SD-WAN can add or remove WAN connections as needed, as well as combine cellular and fixed-line connections.
Under the premise of SD-WAN, bandwidth can be flexibly increased or decreased according to changes in demand. SD-WAN technology can also enable services to be quickly deployed to remote sites without IT personnel to deploy.
2. Cost advantage
Internet links are generally much cheaper than carrier-grade MPLS connections, which are often subject to provider time and expensive prices.
SD-WAN can efficiently utilize all available network connections for all its needs without worrying about maintaining idle backup links.
3. Security advantages
SD-WAN can be used to encrypt traffic during the transmission of WAN traffic, and improve network security by segmenting the network, which can minimize losses in the event of an attack.
SD-WAN also helps IT administrators continuously monitor the amount and type of traffic on the network to quickly detect attacks.
4. Performance advantages
SD-WAN technology applications enable the Internet to create secure, high-performance connections, enabling SD-WAN to cost-effectively deliver business applications while optimizing software-as-a-service (SaaS) and other cloud-based services.
The technology improves branch IT efficiency by enabling automation and provides a reliable, low-cost link to the Internet of Things.
