The secret to a fast-growing business: SD-WAN technology

According to the latest survey statistics from a US technology consulting company, 21% of US companies have begun to deploy SD-WAN, which has been effective in reducing WAN costs and improving network service performance. The practice of companies that have adopted SD-WAN technology in advance has proved that the business returns of most high-speed development companies with multiple branches are particularly significant. By the end of 2019, it is estimated that more than 30% of companies will deploy SD-WAN. It should be noted that SD-WAN technology has only been developed in the past 2-3 years. It is not an exaggeration to say that SD-WAN technology has ushered in a new era of WAN technology.

An important means of managing a fast-growing company is to fully and effectively utilize advanced cloud computing and Internet technologies. In modern enterprises, almost all advanced applications and tools are network-centric. A fast-growing company means that the company has multiple offices or business locations, and employees in various locations must connect to the data center of the company headquarters through a wide area network (WAN) to use IT applications to conduct business. Whether it is a hotel chain's reservation system, a ticket booking system for a soccer match, a singer, or a cinema, or a real estate supermarket's payment system, the management and maintenance of the WAN has always been a headache for fast-growing companies.

First of all, a major challenge for the company's IT department is to constantly deal with domestic wide area network operators, coordinate and negotiate a series of issues such as bandwidth costs, network performance, multi-location operation management, and the time for new online configuration. If not properly resolved, it will directly affect the company's business development.

Secondly, traditionally, each branch or business location may need to invest in network and communication equipment, such as switches, routers and firewalls, telephone or video equipment. Professionals are also needed to manage and maintain these devices. For smaller branches or business locations, it is not realistic to hire full-time local network engineers. Whenever there is a problem or daily network maintenance is required, network technicians have to be sent on a special business trip. The cost is very high, but it has to be done. Because if the company-wide network fails, the branch loses network connection, resulting in a poor experience for the end customer for the company's online business, which will not be worth the loss.

Whether it is network deployment or operation and maintenance, all these risks are unacceptable for fast-growing companies.

The past and future of WAN

Wide Area Network (WAN) is an essential technology platform for multi-location office environments. However, traditional WAN lacks the agility and flexibility required by fast-growing enterprises. Because traditional network technology relies on hardware devices to form a network, usually this means that network devices need to be adjusted or updated one by one, which involves a lot of manual work, resulting in a long delivery cycle for any small change in network technology. In addition, due to the lack of effective network tools and technical means to foresee future needs for network bandwidth, there is no ability to allocate and schedule network traffic in real time. Faced with the congestion caused by the growing number of Internet applications, traditional wide area network (WAN) has no way to ensure priority transmission of key enterprise applications (such as real-time communications, video conferencing, or key data transactions).

A few years ago, the fast-growing Internet companies in the United States also faced the same challenge. Companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon relied on their top internal technical architects to design a new network technology architecture that was later called software-defined networking (SDN). Simply put, unlike the traditional distributed hardware devices to form a network concept and architecture, SDN technology uses a centralized software platform to organize and manage the network. After large-scale practice in recent years, from data center cloud network DCN to cloud interconnection network DCI, SDN technology has achieved great success in Internet operators, cloud operators, and telecom operators. Today, the practice of SD-WAN in technologically developed countries such as the United States in the past 2-3 years has proved that the greatest contribution and value that SDN brings to fast-growing companies is to use software-defined network technology for wide area networks, namely the so-called software-defined wide area network.

SD-WAN has obvious advantages in multi-point office and business scenarios

What is Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)? In short, it is the use of a centralized software platform to organize and manage the wide area network, which can not only simplify the network architecture of branch offices, but also ensure that all enterprise applications can run under the best network conditions. SD-WAN makes the network more flexible and reduces costs.

SDN technology separates the control and data forwarding planes, achieving centralized management and regulation of WAN resources, thereby accelerating the speed of enterprise-wide network deployment and policy implementation. Branch office SD-WAN devices only need to be unpacked, powered on, and connected to the network, and the entire process is simple and easy to operate. Once the SD-WAN device is connected to the network, it can be zero-touch configured (ZTP), plug-and-play, and any application updates or adjustments are handled centrally. For example, through the centralized SD-WAN control platform, adjustments can be made to the different network bandwidth requirements of each branch office, and quality of service (QoS) policies can be easily set for applications and traffic types to optimize voice, video, or other priority application traffic throughout the company.

SD-WAN can realize the simultaneous use of multiple network links and multiple connection types (dedicated lines, wireless and broadband). It provides multi-link access with great cost advantages. When one of the network links fails, it can trigger a failover in less than one second. It greatly improves the high availability of the network.

SD-WAN not only meets the urgent needs of today's fast-growing enterprise IT applications for network bandwidth density and dynamics, but also greatly reduces the capital investment in proprietary network hardware and expensive network transmission. In addition, because SD-WAN was born in the cloud computing era, it can safely transfer enterprise applications to public or private clouds, while seamlessly connecting branch offices to the enterprise's internal network and related private and public clouds.

For engineers who want to proactively manage the network, SD-WAN provides visualization of the entire network traffic. Through the SD-WAN central console for the entire network, network engineers can easily monitor network conditions around the clock, automatically schedule and adjust network traffic engineering, and solve any network problems in any number of branches. This simplicity greatly reduces the demand for network engineers in branches.

The value of SD-WAN to high-growth enterprises

If a fast-growing enterprise includes multiple branches and business locations, now is the time to choose to cooperate with the top domestic professional SDN technology companies and start planning how to use SD-WAN technology to help the rapid development of the enterprise:

1. Greatly reduce WAN networking costs

SD-WAN can improve and expand the existing network infrastructure, using any combination of MPLS, Ethernet, 4G, WiFi and any type of Internet bandwidth to achieve faster installation and lower costs. For the wide area network, the value of SD-WAN lies in consolidating the various network devices in the branch office into fewer and more manageable general devices.

2. Simplify the network architecture, making the use of the WAN more flexible, diverse, dynamic, fast, secure and simple.

Just as cloud computing has brought value to the entire IT technology service model for high-speed development enterprises, SDN promotes the technological advancement of network architecture. Through the SD-WAN approach, not only cheaper and easier to manage equipment is brought, but each device requires little or no unique configuration, making it easier to deploy, change, use and maintain.

3. Improve employee productivity and operational efficiency.

With SD-WAN, network traffic can directly connect to data centers or enter cloud applications and store corporate data, allowing employees to be more productive and ensuring that the company's business always operates at the lowest network cost and with the highest efficiency.

4. Maintain business continuity and run the company's business around the clock.

SD-WAN networks can easily maintain multiple links with redundancy, that is, a network that is always available. SD-WAN can direct network traffic based on office geography, time of day, service level, system latency, or any other performance parameter defined by the enterprise. In the event of a localized network failure, SD-WAN will automatically reroute using the Internet or other network connections.

5. Completely eliminate the difficulties of branch office network installation, failure and management.

Network configuration is automated. SD-WAN devices are plug-and-play. Headquarters experts can use centralized platform software to manage and maintain the network of any branch office.

6. Ensure efficient and secure operation of multiple branches.

SD-WAN solutions include security features that encrypt data in transit and provide network security at each remote office location.