The software development companies in Australia have a whopping 13 billion AUD in total market value, growing 11.4% annually for 5-years. This exponential growth is due to the globalisation of the market and the strengthening of the wide-area networks used by companies to communicate, manage, transact, trade, and develop products and services. Software defined wide area network or SD-WAN is significantly altering the way business networks operate globally. It uses the technology to automate the network traffic over multiple connections. Therefore, it offers easy deployment, central management, secure communication, cost-efficiency, and cloud-based WAN connections over several branches and offices.
What is Software-Defined WAN?
As the name suggests, SD-WANs use specific software to take control of the connectivity, services, and management between remote branches, data centres, and cloud instances. It decouples the data placed from the control plane, making way for easy access and management. Deployment of the SD-WAN includes running a version of the software that handles the security, policy, networking functions, management tools specific to the vendors or customers. It is done through existing switches and routers or virtualised customer premises equipment (vCPE).
What Are the Benefits of SD-WAN?
SD-WAN and vCPE are two key technologies that help companies transform their networks from being fragile to agile. They provide a combination of price, performance, and flexibility when compared to other hardware-centric approaches. The driving principle of a software defined wireless area network is to simplify the connections between the existing and the new branches opened by big, medium, or small companies. They aim to manage the way the employees use voice, video, or data networks. They hence save money in the process. One of its significant features is its ability to control multiple connections like LTE, broadband, and MPLS and segment and secure the traffic coming in the WAN.
They Reduce Network Costs
Software-Defined Wireless Area Network helps reduce the company’s networking cost by using the connection that provides the most economical pricing and efficiency. It does not enforce all the office locations to use one type of connection. Rather offices can use different connection types that work best in their area. All the network connections maintain integrity and security with the single SD-WAN. It reduces the expenditure towards private connections, firewalls, and MPLS at all sites.
They Improve Efficiency and Productivity
One of the crucial components of employee productivity in the current age of technology is for them to get access to online servers throughout the day. SD-WAN ensures that maximum bandwidth reaches over all the existing connections through its intelligent routing. It provides all the employees with a fast and seamless user experience, exponentially increasing their performance.
They Provide Easy Security
The SD-WAN solutions eliminate the need to invest in multiple security applications to protect all the branch offices and sites. They have all the connections secured with firewalls, data encryption, and network security, all under a single software and single pricing.
They Allow Auto-Provisioning
Regarding SD-WANs installation across different branches, companies don’t have to worry about offices with IT staff. The software installs itself when the employees connect the WAN device to the location, saving time, resources, and workforce.
They Ensure Network Continuity
Network downtime is one of the most stressful situations that offices experience. Every second lost could mean a loss of hundreds of dollars. It hinders access for the employees and customers to the server and the website, resulting in loss of productivity and sales. SD-WAN ensures that the network connectivity is intact 24/7 by rerouting traffic based on the location, system delays, time of the day, and other performance thresholds. If one office or site goes down, it will re-route it to another office location’s internet service.
