A Comprehensive Guide to Utilizing a Fully Managed SD-WAN Service
As businesses worldwide strive to increase their information technology infrastructures to reduce costs, improve security and gain network agility, they are turning to managed services for enterprise-level SD-WAN solutions.
However, deploying SD-WAN in-house or using a managed solution depends on your organization’s unique needs and budget. It also depends on the number of sites requiring secure connectivity and how quickly data must transit.
Enhanced Security
A fully managed SD-WAN service Provider can help a business overcome many challenges associated with deploying and managing its SD-WAN infrastructure. These providers will typically help organizations configure access configuration, bandwidth prioritization and endpoint installation.
The decision to build an SD-WAN in-house or utilize managed services depends on the level of security and performance the customer needs. For example, a financial services company may have specific internal policies for handling all transactions.
Those policies are often continuously amended based on the company’s internal compliance requirements and the industry. Building an in-house solution would be more appropriate for a company’s security and performance requirements.
Using a fully managed SD-WAN service provider can also alleviate the burden of handling connectivity, maintenance and monitoring for an organization’s network. This enables a company to focus on core business operations rather than on the IT side of the equation.
Enhanced Performance
A fully managed SD-WAN service provides several enhanced performance features that can help boost your business. These include WAN simplification, lower costs, bandwidth efficiency and a seamless on-ramp to the cloud without compromising security.
These services use intelligent routing and path selection to ensure your traffic is routed over the shortest possible connection. This reduces failures, transfers and connection expenses.
In addition, these systems are often equipped with end-to-end encryption, which protects your data from cyber-attacks and other malicious activities. They also offer enhanced application performance, which improves your business’s productivity and customer satisfaction.
The key to utilizing these services is choosing the right provider. A company that offers high-quality service and strong support can help your business succeed.
Many companies choose to use a managed SD-WAN service because it can save them money. This includes reducing the need for professional installation and minimizing the cost of staffing. These services also allow businesses to increase their revenues through better performance.
Enhanced Flexibility
A fully managed SD-WAN service is a business model in which networking applications and services are outsourced to a managed service provider or communications service provider (CSP).
Managed SD-WAN technology includes hardware–either a driven customer premise equipment (CPE) or virtualized instances. It also provides networking and transport services monitored and operated by a service provider.
Organizations typically choose a managed SD-WAN service to avoid a significant upfront investment in hardware and human resources. They also want to spread SD-WAN deployment costs through a subscription, cloud-based service.
In addition, many organizations prefer a fully managed SD-WAN service because it eliminates the need to independently perform extensive configuration and maintenance. This means they can focus on their core business operations. They can also gain peace of mind that their network is always up and running and backed by industry-leading service-level agreements (SLAs).
Enhanced Scalability
As a business grows, it can take time to maintain a scalable WAN network. This is especially true when a company needs to expand its global reach and support new locations.
A fully managed SD-WAN service helps organizations maximize their WAN uptime and minimize management overhead. This makes it a more attractive option for IT leaders than do-it-yourself solutions.
Unlike traditional networking approaches, such as multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), which routes all traffic through a central internet security point, SD-WAN software dynamically directs all communications to the user on demand. This improves performance and QoEx, as all traffic is treated according to priorities based on internal compliance requirements and security protocols.
Moreover, a business-driven SD-WAN intelligently monitors and manages all underlay transport services, such as MPLS, broadband, and cellular. It also overcomes the challenges of packet loss, latency and jitter to deliver consistent application performance and QoEx.
Enhanced Flexibility
Many organizations utilize a fully managed SD-WAN service because it simplifies deploying and maintaining an effective SD-WAN solution. This is a wise option for smaller companies that need more technical expertise to implement and maintain an in-house SD-WAN solution.
Another benefit of a fully managed SD-WAN service is that it can be tailored to suit any enterprise’s specific requirements. For example, a financial services firm may need to adhere to stringent security and performance criteria while delivering applications and data to multiple locations.
In addition, a business-driven SD-WAN provides continuous monitoring and self-learning to continuously adapt in real-time to changes on the network that could impact application performance. It also automatically responds to transport outages with sub-second failover, avoiding disruptions and delays in connecting users to essential applications.
A fully managed SD-WAN service can simplify network management and centralized policy orchestration. This dramatically reduces the risk of human error that can compromise performance or security.
