Understanding Software-Defined Wide Area Networking [SD-WAN] (Research/Information)

Diving into SD-WAN To Help You Get Network Savvy

Defining software-defined wide area networking and exploring its business benefits

No matter what industry you’re in, developing a reliable and strategic network infrastructure is critical to promoting your company’s livelihood and growth. As technology continues to develop, business professionals are eager to get their hands on the latest advancements that will help them optimize and streamline their network infrastructure.

However, there’s no denying that business professionals are often tied up focusing on industry-specific responsibilities. There’s not much time to pay unlimited attention to technological developments. In fact, we get questions from clients and local business professionals all the time – hoping for a quick inside scoop on the latest networking infrastructure technology that will help optimize their operations.

Most recently, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about SD-WAN so we’ve decided to put a quick guide together to help business professionals understand what SD-WAN is and understand the potential networking benefits it offers businesses in all industries. Read on for the inside scoop on everything SD-WAN.

Defining SD-WAN: What Is Software-Defined Wide Area Networking & How Does It Work?

Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) adds a control layer on top of your company’s network infrastructure, enabling you to centrally manage your critical network functions from a central location. This reduces the need for costly equipment installation and maintenance, reduces network provisioning hold-ups, and allows for optimized management of network traffic.

Simply put, SD-WAN brings together application-aware routing, secure VPN capabilities, and state-of-the-art firewall resources in order to offer businesses an integrated and easy-to-use solution that can be managed seamlessly. SD-WAN allows enterprises to work smarter, not harder while optimizing broadband connections and experiencing the game-changing benefits of a virtualized network.

SD-WAN Benefits: Why Your Company Should be Considering SD-WAN Solutions

Virtualization continues to drive innovation and optimization in the business space. SD-WAN allows business professionals to push their virtualization benefits further than ever before by virtualizing their entire network. In terms of network operations and the management of application traffic, this can be a real game-changer for businesses of all kinds. Read on to understand how.

• Network virtualization = network optimization

When SD-WAN is implemented correctly, all of a business’ branch locations or remote sites remain connected through a reliable, secure, and scalable virtual network. This allows for increased flexibility and better control and access of company resources.

Simply put, SD-WAN is a solution that reduces a company’s dependence on expensive and tedious hardware and improves application performance at the same time. By reducing manual processes and taking better advantage of automation, network navigation is streamlined and optimized.

It’s not just about basic operational benefits either. SD-WAN solutions allow business professionals to have greater control over their network and better understand what is happening on their network. The fact of the matter is, SD-WAN is the first step in allowing business owners to make their network work in pursuit of business goals, instead of having network problems hold them back.

• Optimized management of application traffic

In addition to optimizing network control and management, SD-WAN solutions also help to optimize the management of application traffic on the network. SD-WAN offers an application-intelligent solution, which provides new levels of insights into your network traffic – features that simply aren’t available with traditional WAN and VPN networking solutions.

SD-WAN allows system administrators to implement dynamic policies that prioritize network traffic routes. The system builds intelligence and directs traffic across the most sensible path based on application prioritization and network connection status. SD-WAN solutions are designed with built-in automatic failover tools to help meet application capacity and performance needs.

The best part? You reap all of these benefits with no additional network operating costs. Your network is custom designed to support more users, more devices, and more application traffic across your entire workforce.

Head Spinning? Lean on Professional IT Consultants for Guidance and Strategic Advice

Even when it’s all laid out on paper, IT and networking infrastructure can be tricky to understand and navigate. With IT and business evolving so rapidly, many business professionals often have the urge to throw their hands in the air and just hope for the best.

However, coming to understand technological developments is crucial in a rapidly transforming business environment. You don’t want your business to fall behind the pack because you’re relying on outdated or sub-par network infrastructure. But we get it. You’re busy. So, how is a business professional supposed to stay technologically advanced while remaining focused on mission-critical business?

Best practice is to lean on IT professionals for strategic consultation. Strategic IT professionals keep a finger on the pulse and then help to empower you and your team with all the knowledge you need and none of the extras that you don’t. If your company is looking to take advantage of SD-WAN virtualization solutions, don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and get some professional consultation.

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