With more and more organisations moving towards cloud-based technologies
and increasing numbers of devices escalating connectivity and bandwidth
demands, particularly in light of the move towards remote working, the networking landscape is now forever changed.
“Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,
we’ve seen a growing adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies
locally for instance – and a related jump in the number of connected devices,”
says Marc van der Poll, network and solutions architect at ICT solutions provider Datacentrix. “For companies, this has
translated to an increase in bandwidth requirements, as well as new types
of users connecting to the network.”
From a broader business perspective, there’s
mounting pressure to extract more value from technology investments than
ever before, and the network has become one such area of scrutiny, says
Van der Poll.
As a result, there has been a great amount
of contemplation around the benefits of software-defined networking (SD-WAN)
technology – the relative newcomer to the tech world – versus the more
traditional multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) approach.
SD-WAN enabled routers dynamically direct
traffic using intelligent path control, based on up-to-the-minute application
and network conditions for improved application experiences. This technology
provides centralised control over application performance, bandwidth usage,
data privacy and availability.
“There are certainly specific drivers
that put SD-WAN firmly ahead of MPLS in the network traffic protocols fray,”
says Van der Poll. “Redundancy is important here, as businesses looking
for better uptime appreciate the fact that – being carrier-agnostic –
SD-WAN is able to optimise algorithms to push traffic over the best suited
link, using different media including fibre, microwave, LTE and even VSAT
technology.”
Capacity requirements too are critical,
as private WANs can be extended with the addition of public broadband services.
This means that non-critical traffic can be off-loaded onto the public
network during normal operation to improve the network’s overall performance.
“When it comes to cloud strategy, an increase
in capacity is critical, and SD-WAN technology is extremely helpful here
as it not only addresses the question of capacity, but also performs application-level
routing, which provides optimal pathways to cloud-based services.
“SD-WAN gives the local breakout to the
internet needed for cloud services. This means that internet traffic to
cloud services, such as Microsoft Office 365, does not have to transverse
to the corporate backbone as with MPLS. This massively reduces WAN bandwidth
usage.
“The same applies to businesses that are expanding and growing their physical footprint. Not only can new branches easily be brought into an existing SD-WAN setup, it is also beneficial for companies undergoing mergers, acquisitions or business segregation, as the deployment of an SD-WAN as an overlay allows for the central utilisation of corporate-wide policies and security standards.”
From a network management perspective, the major benefit of the touchless central deployment of policies, hardware and firmware, as well as analytics gathering, is that it brings with it far lower rollout and maintenance costs.
“To do their work,
the mobile workforce needs to use multiple devices and relies on many applications,
which they access directly via the internet,” says Van der Poll. “Consequently, companies everywhere
are challenged with ensuring that their users have a safe, reliable and
consistent digital experience.
“SD-WAN represents a technology shift
towards solutions that are more agile, open, and cloud integrated, and
is able to deliver on these requirements.”
