Some embrace change, others run from it. The past two years hammered home the inevitability of change – especially from a business perspective. And as the era of remote work takes flight, and the infinite enterprise extends wings to touch all points of the globe, SD-WAN is a critical building block.
The early 90s brought rise to internet access and the comedy chops of Jeff Foxworthy. And while I wouldn’t call Foxworthy or his Blue Collar Comedy tour cohorts for network advice, they certainly have a way of offering perspective. In an effort to channel our inner Foxworthys, today we will illustrate why you might be a candidate for SD-WAN.
If your business is rapidly expanding or diverse geographically…When one retail store grows to 10 then 100, the network needs to scale, but more importantly company policies and protocols must extend as well. SD-WAN makes it possible for your new branch office or retail location to fall under the same umbrella. Centralized management supports accelerated branch deployment, with zero touch (or low touch) provisioning, your organization can enjoy cloud-based networking in a matter of hours.
If your organization is looking toward cloud migration…If 2021 was a wordmap, cloud would be front and center in boldface type. Legacy WAN architectures are not equipped for modern application delivery. The traditional model of hosting applications in a centralized data center cannot offer the efficiency of SD-WAN, which was designed to support the specific demands of the cloud.
If your QoS isn’t cutting the mustard…If your business suffers from frequent network disruptions, SD-WAN is the silver bullet for meeting Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and delivering application control. QoS starts with network visibility, empowering IT with the ability to prioritize mission critical applications and rapidly troubleshoot network issues. Furthermore, SD-WAN enables admins to set SLAs for each application, and in leveraging application based routing ensures an exceptional end user experience.
If you’re unsure of how secure your WAN is…While SD-WAN won’t stop employees from using passwords that make them look anything close to smarter than a fifth grader, it can solidify security posture. Firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS), for example, is cloud delivered, always up-to-date and works in tandem with a unified orchestration platform to optimize performance while reducing overall cost.
…You might be a candidate for SD-WAN
SD-WAN is a tried and true, trusted cloud onramp for the enterprise. The above are several reasons why we’re seeing SD-WAN adoption, if you think you might be a candidate for SD-WAN learn more HERE.
Remember, there’s no time to dawdle in the digital age – Git ‘r done!
Originally published on the Extreme Networks blog, January 19, 2022
