Wide Area Networks: What You Need to Know in the Internet of Things Era

The total global IoT spending is estimated to reach US$772 billion in 2018, which will bring about a huge change to traditional industries.

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2018 Goes Mainstream

According to the forecast of authoritative organizations, the total global IoT expenditure will reach 772 billion US dollars in 2018. The wide application of IoT is developing rapidly, from asset tracking, equipment monitoring to machine maintenance, which will bring a huge change to traditional industries. In the IoT industry, network communication is the key to development. Software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technology is sweeping the entire industry and has developed from an emerging technology in 2017 to becoming mainstream in 2018.

WAN (Wide Area Network) refers to a private communication network distributed in different locations and connecting multiple LANs.

The main purpose of SD-WAN is to achieve the network quality of dedicated lines for ordinary Internet links by utilizing a series of technologies such as software technology, application strategy deployment and overlay network, reduce traffic costs and improve bandwidth utilization; at the same time, for multiple sites, it can automatically select the best path according to the existing network conditions and configuration strategies, achieve load balancing, and ensure the network quality of the entire network.

By deploying SD-WAN routers, the bandwidth of multiple WAN connections can be combined. At the same time, using SD-WAN, enterprises can add or delete WAN connections on demand, and can also combine cellular and dedicated 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 WAN services to be quickly deployed to remote sites without the need for IT staff to deploy them.

Enterprise interconnection is more efficient

In addition, whether from the perspective of cost or security, the deployment of SD-WAN will also have many advantages. Carrier-grade MPLS connections are usually affected by supply time and are generally more expensive, while Internet links are usually much cheaper than carrier-grade MPLS connections. SD-WAN technology enables enterprises to effectively use all available network connections to meet all their needs without worrying about maintaining idle backup links.

Traffic encryption is more secure

In terms of security, SD-WAN can be used to encrypt traffic during WAN transmission and improve network security by slicing the network, which can minimize the loss in the event of an attack. SD-WAN can also help IT administrators continuously monitor the amount and type of traffic on the network and quickly detect attacks.

SD-WAN infrastructure revenues grew 83.3% in 2017 to $833 million, and the market is becoming increasingly competitive, with traditional network vendors pursuing M&A strategies to complement their existing offerings or gain a foothold in this rapidly expanding market.

The emergence of SD-WAN technology is one of the fastest industry transformations we’ve seen in years, with organizations of all sizes modernizing their wide area networks to deliver a better user experience for a range of cloud-enabled applications, said Rohit Mehra, vice president of network infrastructure at IDC.

Incumbent network vendors have quickly realigned their routing and WAN optimization portfolios to accommodate the growing number of startups in this market, and through rapid development in the service provider space, SD-WAN infrastructure will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years, providing a beachhead for other software-defined networking and security capabilities in the enterprise branch.