In an Industry Insight I penned a little over a year ago, I noted interest in software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) – the next step in the evolution of the network – was spiralling upwards. I quoted the Forbes Technology Council which, at that time, said the SD-WAN market was “white-hot” and buyers were flocking to the technology.
Predictions of a massive upsurge in SD-WAN installations have been proven correct. One industry commentator notes the “energy and excitement” around the technology – which is designed to connect enterprise network locations including branch offices and data centres over large geographic distances – is now “really high”.
A respected research group reports that SD-WAN adoption is seeing “remarkable growth as companies seek to streamline their WAN infrastructures and evolve toward more cloud-based applications”.
Against this backdrop, I believe it’s interesting to examine the key reasons why users are investing in SD-WAN technology at such a rate and what underscores their motives for aligning their business models with it.
Much of the growth in SD-WAN adoption must be attributed to multi-site enterprises looking to cut costs by reducing the number of physical devices required in their networks, and the need to lower the cost of maintaining technology deployed in remote locations.
High on the list of SD-WAN motivators are the cost-saving advantages associated with how users leverage digitisation and multi-cloud and application storage and consumption to deliver differentiated experiences to staff, supply chain members and customers.
Fundamental triggers for SD-WAN adoption also include the need to refresh existing WAN installations when current contracts with service providers expire, and the increasing need to keep pace with evolving corporate network architectures.
The trend towards the use of more cost-effective business Internet instead of dedicated Internet access circuits is similarly driving SD-WAN acceptance.
Digging deeper into the cost-saving benefits of SD-WAN, we see it’s the “cost-per-megabyte of data consumed” that’s appealing to the multi-site enterprise owner who can now adopt new-generation cloud strategies – such as network virtualisation and cloud-based software-as-a-service applications – by enabling more bandwidth per location for the same cost as conventional Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technologies.
For many of South Africa’s larger organisations, SD-WANs will help alleviate the current dearth of trained and skilled networking technicians.
In this light, SD-WAN technology allows users to dynamically create secure tunnels between locations with any topology, independent of any underlying MPLS, LTE or broadband transport while supporting direct, regional and hub Internet breakouts. Granular policies dictate which applications may go over the Internet and what must traverse managed WAN connectivity.
A major attraction of many emerging SD-WAN solutions is their ability to collect data relating to traffic and telemetry, and present this information clearly and explicitly via a network operations console, thus allowing deep visibility into the network and application traffic that crosses the SD-WAN.
What’s more, with SD-WAN technology it is possible to manage an entire enterprise WAN with multi-tenant application-level control. Managers gain multiple benefits associated with being able to easily automate the deployment of new locations with minimal manual intervention.
Another important driver behind the acceptance of the technology is the ease with which enterprises are able to deploy an instance of SD-WAN software in an information-as-a-service cloud provider’s environment, thus establishing the other end of a secure connection from any corporate location to the cloud via the Internet. Organisations can simply manage these SD-WAN “cloud gateways” as easily as any node on the WAN, with enhanced security, visibility and performance.
SD-WAN technology is also being well received in the small to medium enterprise (SME) environment, where organisations are increasingly moving to the cloud as their main delivery mechanism for ICT services. Here, agility, network resilience, reliability and quality of experience are all important motivators. In short, what SD-WAN offers the SME is the opportunity to leverage the cloud in a more secure, most effective way.
For users who previously opted for hybrid WANs in order to resolve problems associated with older WAN architectures – such as connecting geographically separated WANs to a branch office via autonomous links – SD-WAN technology is able to integrate into this environment without disruption. The hybrid WAN then relies on the SD-WAN’s intelligence to distribute data traffic, allowing it to flow seamlessly between the links.
For many of South Africa’s larger organisations, SD-WANs will help alleviate the current dearth of trained and skilled networking technicians who have been required to be based at all sites where network infrastructures are deployed. These organisations will be able to take advantage of the simplified, centralised management solution offered by an SD-WAN controller featuring WAN management conducted via a graphical user interface with point-and-click workflows.
The advent of SD-WAN technology also presents opportunities for SA’s channel structure, giving dealers and resellers currently focused on selling voice, data and unified communications-as-a-service solutions another important offering to bring to market.
However, it appears as if many dealers are unaware of the scale of the SD-WAN phenomenon and are in danger of missing out on monetisation opportunities. At the same time, they need to be wary of the coming surge in SD-WAN solutions and choose vendor partners wisely based on criteria that include the value of delivering viable business and operational benefits to their customers.
The Gartner global research and advisory firm notes “the [SD-WAN] market is evolving quickly with multiple vendors entering the market, including large networking vendors, focused WAN specialists and start-ups”.
Vendors will typically follow different approaches when it comes to the flexibility, segmentation and prioritisation features of their SD-WAN offerings, so dealers should do their due diligence to ensure the solutions they present and support work best with their clients’ existing infrastructures and overall WAN goals for the future.
Share