trol, visibility, and flexibility – in terms of security, traffic, and applying policies – that VPNs typically do not. In most cases, VPNs handle most users in the same way and typically route all traffic over the established connection, “so even nonwork traffic ends up running through the headquarters’ gateways out to the internet,” explained Fruehe. VPNs also do little to mitigate slow, congested, or over-provisioned broadband connections. “But, with an SD-WAN home office, IT can take a more finegrained approach to managing users, access, security, and the other aspects of connectivity back to the main headquarters,” argued Fruehe. Even in a home office set-up with a single link, the dynamic optimization capabilities of SD-WAN can adjust and prioritize traffic for a better user experience, such as maintaining quality for bandwidth-sensitive apps including VoIP, collaboration tools, or video conferencing, or prioritizing certain roles or power users, all while deprioritizing or blocking less-important traffic, such as Facebook or YouTube, so as not to constrain company bandwidth and infrastructure. This type of optimization and prioritization is particularly important to remote work, as home users’ ISP networks are becoming more congested with more work traffic. And in cases where the home internet service is simply inadequate for work, SD-WAN appliances often can be outfitted with cellular LTE connectivity as an alternate connection. Another benefit over a VPN is that an SD-WAN can route cloud traffic directly to cloud services instead of backhauling the data through a data center. Ultimately, as explained by Jean-Luc Valente, vice president of product management for Cisco’s SDWAN and edge routing division, SD-WAN appliances in the home means employees’ homes can be treated similar to any other branch office, allowing IT teams to apply policy consistently across various business segments, extend security beyond company-issued devices to the LAN, and enable application-level quality of service. For the individual users, SDWAN to the home can be relatively simple and transparent. The zero-touch provisioning of most SD-WAN gateways, explained Fruehe, means IT can send SD-WAN appliances directly to a remote worker for installation, and when plugged in, the device can selfprovision and connect back to headquarters with little or no interaction on the employee’s end. “Even VoIP can be configured, enabling calls from the headquarters to route directly to the employee,” Fruehe continued. Not that an SD-WAN deployment makes sense across the entire WHF spectrum, at least in the near term. Fruehe suggests companies consider the specific role or duties of the individual home-based employee when deciding where Top VPN Challenges for Remote Access Lack of visibility into user activity taking place 24% High cost of security appliances/infrastructure 23% Requires giving employees and third-parties access to corporate network 19% Poor user experience due to backhauls to VPN gateways 16% Complexity of managing existing remote access across public cloud environments 14% Inability to scale to meet user demand 4% Source: Cybersecurity Insiders 2021 survey Quality of Experience Improvements of SD-WAN in WFH Environment “SD-WANs provide a level of control, visibility, and flexibility – in terms of security, traffic, and applying policies – that VPNs typically do not. ” Source: AT&T 14 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
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