With more and more work in the digital world, businesses demand high-performance networks to support remote work, cloud applications, and data-intensive operations. This increasing demand for bandwidth has driven a shift away from traditional, expensive MPLS connections. SD-WAN revolutionizes connectivity sourcing by enabling businesses to break free from the limitations of traditional MPLS networks.

SD-WAN as a network overlay

SD-WAN has fundamentally altered the landscape of network connectivity sourcing. By acting as a virtual overlay on existing underlay connections – such as broadband internet, 4G/5G, or even satellite – SD-WAN decouples the network from the underlying physical infrastructure. This virtualization allows for the bundling of several physical connectivity lines into one, the consistent encryption of the traffic exchanged on the underlay and routing of it in a smart way: business-critical apps first, everything else last. This decoupling of overlay from underlay enables businesses to leverage a diverse mix of connectivity options, transcending the limitations of traditional, often costly, MPLS connections.

Shifting connectivity landscape

The modern business environment demands high bandwidth to support remote work, cloud applications, and data-intensive processes like video conferencing and AI. This necessitates a shift in connectivity sourcing strategies. While reliable MPLS connections with guarantees in the form of service level agreements (SLAs) once reigned supreme, their cost can be prohibitive for many organizations. SD-WAN empowers businesses to explore more cost-effective options, such as dedicated internet access (DIA) or broadband internet lines and 4G/5G, while still ensuring high performance and reliability through intelligent traffic steering and prioritization. In addition, LTE/5G and satellite connectivity becomes more popular, providing a good option to connect remote or new locations rapidly and with surprisingly good quality.

Navigating complexity

However, this shift introduces new complexities. Selecting the optimal connectivity mix for each location – considering factors such as bandwidth requirements, application latency, and security needs – demands careful consideration. The increasing expectations in regards to connectivity capacity, quality, flexibility and cost-effectiveness result in higher complexity of connectivity sourcing and operations. Firstly, companies have to understand which connectivity is optimal for their locations and their network in general: the type of connectivity like MPLS, DIA, 5G or a global backbone as well as the provider of the connectivity solution. Secondly, they have to decide for an SD-WAN product or a managed provider for the overlay. Finally, they have to make sure everything works smoothly together in operations: from managing connectivity - with potential outages or planned maintenance on access lines or the backbone - to ensuring application performance on the network. Managing diverse connections from multiple providers can quickly become overwhelming, especially with the scarce IT network resources companies typically have these days.

Managed SD-WAN and Connectivity

While SD-WAN addresses many of the challenges of traditional network management by providing a centralized management platform that simplifies network operations, automates tasks, and ensures consistent performance across the entire network, it introduces new complexities due to the fusion of underlay and overlay. Managed service providers who offer both, the SD-WAN overlay and the connectivity underlay, can help reduce these complexities. They are sourcing from and managing various connectivity providers as well as operating SD-WAN and connectivity together, optimizing network availability, performance and cost overall.

By embracing Managed SD-WAN, businesses can:

• Reduce costs: Leverage cost-effective internet connections while maintaining high performance.
• Improve agility: Quickly adapt to changing business needs and scale their networks as required.
• Enhance performance: Optimize application performance with intelligent traffic routing and prioritization.
• Strengthen security: Enhance network security with integrated security features.
• Efficient operations: Reduce complexity in sourcing of and managing connectivity and network providers

In essence, SD-WAN is not just a technology: it's a paradigm shift in how businesses approach network connectivity. By embracing this technology, organizations can optimize their connectivity sourcing strategies, reduce costs, and enhance network agility. A managed service provider who offers both, connectivity and SD-WAN, can help IT teams to avoid the complexity pitfall and unlock new levels of agility, performance, and cost-effectiveness.