Utility Telecom is in partnership with Versa Networks to provide software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) services to businesses. Many people, however, are still new to SD-WAN and aren’t fully aware of the numerous benefits that it has to offer. Utility Telecom is therefore committed to providing education and awareness about this technology.
In this piece, Utility will walk you through the basics of SD-WAN.
What is SD-WAN?
Utility Telecom describes SD-WAN as an application that takes networks that were separate and turns them into a part of a common encrypted network, or a single WAN. This turns the previous infrastructure into a network that’s accessible at all points, such as a company’s multiple branches, data centers, cloud services, and more.
SD-WAN is made of several technologies dating back to links that connected remote links in the 1970s and WAN that started to grow in popularity around the mid-2000s. SD-WAN is able to take the two technologies and add the ability to share network bandwidth across multiple connection points, improving the overall network and how it stays connected.
SD-WAN is managed by a centralized controller and enables IT staff to program devices remotely and reduce provisioning time. This minimizes or even eliminates the need to manually configure traditional routers in branch locations, helping businesses save money on hardware and reduce the need for IT teams in each branch location.
What Does SD-WAN Provide?
- Integrated security functions – Allows a combination of circuits and service providers to ensure a secure connection while proactively preventing DDoS attacks.
- Virtual overlay networks – Uses an organization’s different networks as one single logical network.
- Application and network active monitoring – Turns the network into an intelligent network and allows multiple circuits, devices and services to work together to offer dynamic traffic routing.
- Control and management infrastructure – Service providers can manage WANs for clients, reducing or even eliminating on-site IT staff.
Why Do Organizations Need SD-WAN?
More organizations are transitioning over to cloud services, says Utility Telecom, but still have on-premise resources. Switching to SD-WAN allows organizations to consolidate their network visibility, manage their cloud technology and on-premise usage.
This allows organizations to get more from their cloud-based technology, without the need to install expensive hardware or fixed circuits. Since SD-WAN uses internet broadband connections to replace expensive solutions, routing hardware is no longer necessary. This makes for a more cost-efficient solution for businesses.
In addition to the reduced costs, SD-WAN technology allows for more flexibility since connectivity can be controlled through cloud software. This allows customers to have control over scaling up or “burst” connectivity during their peak hours. With automatic failover, traffic is automatically redirected to boost application performance and reduce latency.
What are some other functions?
- Simplified management
- Increasing public cloud utilization
- Centralized control and configuration
- Zero-touch provisioning
- Mobile app (allows for traffic steering)
- Multi-service support
- Service chaining
- Scalability and elasticity
Versa is now offering demos for its leading SD-WAN solution.
