PART 2: WHAT ARE THE REAL BENEFITS OF SD-WAN?
Why Your Business Needs SD-WAN
The world is ever changing and so is the way that we work. Flexibility to adapt to change, doing more with less, reducing costs and improving productivity and user experience are all vital to survival – and these are all possible with a properly designed SD-WAN network to underpin every aspect of your business.
SD-WAN technology makes use of all available bandwidth, and enhances cost effective connectivity options such as FTTC and 4G, delivering business grade performance for less. Centralised control, management and visibility means smaller teams are required and on-site technical resources are no longer needed.
A single device at each site delivering network and security means less hardware, less management and less cost. Built in resilience and redundancy keeps your users connected and your business online while connecting to Cloud environments more efficiently than before.
“SD-WAN technology WILL lower the total cost of your network when you look at TCO – connectivity & equipment, reduced downtime, network administration, staff and travel costs. “
“When looking at total cost of ownership (TCO), it is important to consider ALL costs involved, not just the infrastructure charges”
The quote above may sound like a bold statement — it is, and it can be easily proved! It is important to look at all the costs involved in running your network to accurately predict the savings that an SDWAN Solutions’ designed SD-WAN will deliver. See the Hard and Soft Cost table below or CALL OR EMAIL US TO TALK THROUGH YOUR OPTIONS
The general benefits of SD-WAN technology
1. SAVINGS
You can dramatically lower connectivity, equipment and network administration costs. Hard cost savings are easy to show whereas the soft cost savings such as reduced travel, reduced downtime etc are more complicated to accurately calculate, but are equally important to consider.
2. RAPID DEPLOYMENT
Have a new branch office up and running within days not months, via zero touch deployment. Upgrade your bandwidth instantly by simply plugging in another xDSL circuit or SDWAN SOLUTIONS 4G / LTE connection.
3. VISIBILITY AND CONTROL
Customers benefit from unprecedented levels of visibility into both legacy and cloud applications and gain the unique ability to centrally assign business intent policies to secure and control all WAN traffic – all from a single location.
4. SECURITY
All traffic flowing across the SDWAN Solutions SD-WAN network is encrypted with AES 256 IPsec. Secure dynamic conduits are brought up automatically, plus branches can connect directly to cloud based security providers, without back-haul to a DC.
5. FLEXIBILITY
Customers can rapidly, and without disruption, augment or replace their MPLS networks with any form of broadband connectivity, 4G, LTE, or dedicated Internet access, all of which can be provided by SDWAN Solutions.
6. PERFORMANCE
End-user satisfaction is significantly improved due to consistent and enhanced application performance and prioritisation, full utilisation of installed bandwidth and intelligent traffic paths, especially important in multi-cloud environments.
7. CLOUD CONNECTIVITY
Unlike MPLS, access to applications hosted in the cloud is direct without the need to be routed via a data centre or centralised HQ hub, thereby saving time and reducing the actual overall bandwidth that is required. SDWAN CLOUD further enhances the user experience and simplifies multi-cloud management whilst reducing costs too.
8. BUSINESS CONTINUITY
SDWAN Solutions designs include multiple connectivity options, providers and technologies at every site on your network, ensuring downtime is avoided. New locations can be live within a few minutes using LTE while SDWAN CLOUD simplifies switching between multi-cloud environments, in under 60 seconds – true DR solutions
HARD COSTS TO CONSIDER
- Leveraging encryption and Active/ Active paths, organizations can increase adoption of public Internet links while reducing their use of their expensive private WAN circuits. No need to pay for idle backup circuits that are rarely used.
- Eventually retiring routers at End-of-Life or when a WAN refresh approaches, can lead to both short-term savings and accrued long-term savings through reduced CAPEX. Routers are not always required in new installations thereby significantly reducing set-up fees.
- Subtract the SD-WAN private WAN cost from the legacy private WAN cost to see how much you will save. Usual savings of between 40-80% can be achieved.
- IT personnel are not needed at every location and there’s no need to physically visit remote sites for deployment or policy changes.
SOFT COSTS TO CONSIDER
- Customers no longer need network operators to configure individual WAN routers when changing policies — saving additional expense.
- Centralised policy management and roll-out. Routine changes do not need to be handled by network engineers with deep, specialized knowledge. This frees up engineering staff to work on business enriching projects, reduces human error, speeds up policy changes and improves system availability, and reduces IT Department travel expense and time.
- Reports and network data is readily available and easy to consume, allowing organizations to spot issues and resolve them quickly. Trends are quickly identified for future planning.
- Built in resilience means that branches stay operational even if a main connectivity medium fails. Users can continue to work i.e. no lost man hours or site downtime.
Additional benefits that our solutions offer
- Increased Bandwidth Instantly: add in new technologies to boost performance i.e. 4G
- Automatic Intelligent Routing: Our SD-WAN always selects the fastest route – per packet!
- No Costly Idle Back-up: Replace or boost costly MPLS with cheaper, more effective options without compromising performance
- Critical Apps Priority: automatic bandwidth optimisation for critical Apps
- Automated Dynamic Traffic flow – with zero manual intervention – true SD-WAN
- Any Connectivity: Cherry pick best connections at every site, let our experts advise
- Zero Provider Limitations: not limited to one provider or even your current provider
- Performance Visibility Across Entire Network: visibility at App level at all locations
- Reduce IT Staff: Manage entire network without leaving the office on just ONE screen
- Zero-touch Deployment: pre-configured devices – just plug-in and power up
- Instant Policy Updates: centralise policy changes to all sites in minutes, remotely
- Increased Agility: new sites up and running in hours
- Zero Downtime as you switch to SD-WAN as an overlay to your existing network
- Cloud Apps Access Direct From Site: No DC first, no delays no consuming bandwidth
- Direct Access to Cloud Apps – from your local site
- Less Hardware: replace priority or end-of-life routers, our uCPE replaces many devices
- Host Third Party Apps: such as firewalls etc with less hardware per site
- Zero Disruption Installation: It’s business as usual across your network and business