The need for SD-WAN in a multi-cloud world

With the advent of a multi-cloud world, software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) vendors must upgrade their platforms to ensure secure and reliable SD-WAN connections to cloud computing services.

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For many IT organizations, SD-WAN has become the primary entry point for branch and edge computing communications to cloud computing environments. These organizations have also begun to adopt multi-cloud architectures, with applications running on the best platform regardless of location.

In response, SD-WAN providers aim to rapidly innovate their platforms to enable secure, reliable and high-quality SD-WAN connectivity to leading IaaS cloud platforms. As IaaS cloud computing providers extend their networks to the edge and their customers, SD-WAN requires providers to use new ways to accelerate communications to and from cloud computing environments. Integration opportunities for SD-WAN providers include Microsoft Azure Virtual WAN and AWS Transit Gateway.

The key for customers is to invest in technology that can examine all possible paths and then select the best transport option for optimal performance directly from the branch office. This can be from the branch office or edge into an IaaS cloud computing environment anywhere in the world.

Multi-cloud requirements

Multi-cloud is usually defined as the use of two or more IaaS platforms, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Platform, and Google Cloud Platform. Today, most organizations use a variety of on-premises data centers and cloud-based resources to achieve agile IT operations. According to a survey by RightScale, about 84% of organizations have adopted a multi-cloud strategy. As a result, these IT organizations manage a range of private clouds, public clouds, and SaaS platforms, providing developers with the flexibility to run applications on the most appropriate platform and provide users with excellent quality of experience.

Multi-cloud SD-WAN requirements

Distributed organizations primarily use SD-WAN platforms to increase bandwidth, improve security, and provide application prioritization to the network edge. IT teams can deploy SD-WAN on-premises with the help of channel partners or as a managed service.

SD-WAN providers aim to continually improve the capabilities of their platforms through traffic identification and routing, enhanced network security, and better centralized management. The following are some of the key SD-WAN features needed to support multi-cloud connectivity.

To support multi-cloud environments, SD-WAN needs to go beyond traditional hybrid WAN connections to enable application delivery when and where end users need it.

Application delivery. To support multi-cloud environments, SD-WAN requirements go beyond traditional hybrid WAN connectivity to deliver applications where and when end users need them. SD-WAN requirements include seamless connectivity from users to private cloud, IaaS, and SaaS platforms based on defined business policies, with active traffic control and prioritization.

Reliability and quality of experience. Because many cloud applications are business-critical, SD-WAN platforms must provide high reliability and quality of user experience (such as low latency), as well as appropriate security and compliance policies.

Security and visibility. Improved security and contextual awareness in the platform and through partners are critical to offsetting the inherent risks of global Internet, cloud computing, and IoT vulnerabilities. SD-WAN platforms need to see traffic sources and destinations to whitelist traffic flows and isolate risks. SD-WAN technology must provide IT and security administrators with choices through data centers or edge computing.

Micro-segmentation. For customers in multi-cloud environments, security requires platforms with micro-segmentation capabilities to isolate certain traffic flows, applications, and network segments. In addition, the low latency requirements of IoT traffic require a platform that can identify, protect, and route traffic to the appropriate resources. Many SD-WAN providers can identify and prioritize real-time traffic.

Connectivity. Connectivity to multiple IaaS platforms often requires lengthy manual processes to enable appropriate routing tables and complex tools to resolve traffic degradation. Some SD-WAN technology providers offer automated connectivity to leading IaaS cloud computing environments and tools to quickly identify and correct application performance degradation.

Partnerships. SD-WAN vendors are also working to rapidly improve how they handle customer expectations in a multi-cloud world. Vendors are partnering with leading IaaS providers such as Amazon and Microsoft, and most plans to include Google as well.

If an organization adopts a multi-cloud strategy, its SD-WAN requirements for connectivity and traffic volumes may change.

Architectural options for multi-cloud and SD-WAN requirements

Today, most organizations use a direct-to-the-internet network architecture that sends branch office traffic directly to the cloud environment to improve the user's quality of experience. SD-WAN vendors use several different technologies to accelerate and protect multi-cloud communications, depending on the cloud platform used. As a result, SD-WAN technology is at the forefront of traffic decisions that determine what traffic is sent or received by a specific cloud-based platform.

Most SD-WAN platforms offer traffic encryption and IPsec VPN to help protect Internet-bound traffic. SD-WAN providers can also work with cloud-based security vendors, such as Zscaler, to use their specialized traffic analysis capabilities.

Many SD-WAN providers partner with industry-leading IaaS providers to ensure simplified application access on these platforms. Some vendors enable their customers to launch virtual SD-WAN instances in IaaS cloud platforms or at service provider points of presence (PoPs).

Vendor examples of SD-WAN connectivity to multi-cloud

All leading SD-WAN vendors offer integration and traffic acceleration services with major IaaS cloud computing providers. These SD-WAN vendors include:

• Aryaka Networks. Aryaka SmartCloud is a managed network service for IaaS cloud computing environments such as Microsoft Azure.
• Aviatrix. AVX Orchestrator provides organizations with a simple workflow to deploy a complete AWS Transit Gateway, all virtual private cloud attachments, and direct connections in one or more regions.
• CloudGenix. CloudGenix CloudBlades on the Equinix platform can route traffic to the nearest Equinix PoP and then to a specific IaaS cloud platform.
• Riverbed. Riverbed SteelConnect provides one-click VPN connections to AWS and Microsoft Azure cloud platforms.
• Oracle. Oracle Cloud Connect provides multi-link visibility and bidirectional quality of service (QoS) for cloud-based and SaaS-based application access.

SD-WAN upgrades for multi-cloud

SD-WAN vendors are rapidly improving their multi-cloud capabilities through partnerships with industry-leading IaaS providers, increased security through internal upgrades and partnerships, and traffic pattern identification for leading SaaS applications.

IT teams need the same capabilities to control and protect data in IaaS cloud platforms as they do in private data centers. As SD-WAN requirements and technology advance, these capabilities include enhanced ways for IT teams to control, automate, and change the QoS of public cloud environments. This dynamic traffic control means IT teams can shift workloads based on time of day or price signals.

Microsoft Azure's Virtual WAN and AWS regions and Outposts have begun to build out their cloud computing networks to provide their customers with faster access to IaaS-based applications. As cloud computing providers distribute their network edges closer to customers, SD-WAN providers must integrate their products with new IaaS PoPs to speed up application delivery.