There are many factors to consider when choosing an SD-WAN provider. These include cost, performance, security, and flexibility. CDW can help you choose the right solution for your business.
SD-WAN can benefit an organization, including better efficiency gains around leveraging the WAN. It also can save organizations costs with circuit management and resiliency improvements.
Cost
Many businesses require agile edge connectivity for mission-critical applications. Selecting an SD-WAN vendor with low latency is critical, ensuring applications perform optimally. A service provider should also provide a flexible pricing model and allow for additional revenue-generating services such as LAN access (wired and wireless), IoT visibility and control, on-ramp for multi-cloud, and security.
An effective SD-WAN solution reduces business costs by enabling a shift from expensive private connections between facilities to less costly broadband connections. An SD-WAN also provides a unified platform for network performance optimization and security. This reduces the total cost of ownership by consolidating multiple hardware, software, and service providers.
A scalable SD-WAN should be able to terminate any connectivity type from multiple locations, including MPLS, layer 3 VPLS / VLL, simple IPSec VPN, and more. Managing quality of service and security policies centrally across a wide range of sites ensures consistency and enables inflight re-routing based on traffic type.
In addition, SD-WAN as a service provides businesses with a scalable and efficient solution for managing their wide-area networks, offering enhanced control, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness in network operations and management.
This helps eliminate performance gaps and inefficiencies. The unified security platform mitigates internal threats by providing granular, dynamic protection based on user, device, and application context.
Performance
When choosing a managed SD-WAN service, you want to ensure your networks are always up and running. Look for providers with a high availability guarantee and continuous monitoring and alerting. They should also have backup systems that take over workloads when necessary.
A top pick for business connectivity, with its robust security options and easy-to-use management portal. It has a pay-as-you-grow model that can scale with your business and offers network segmentation and real-time analytics. Its full SASE security features help to improve application performance.
While others provide a reliable and affordable alternative to expensive MPLS circuits, its cloud-based solution delivers low latency and high bandwidth while providing flexibility with multiple transport modes and WAN link optimization. Its unified management dashboard and cloud gateway services make it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes.
Some has a fast network that provides a high level of reliability and is backed by an SLA. Its multi-cloud connectivity and centralized management tools help to reduce complexity and cost. Its WAN optimization and application performance features are precious for enterprises with distributed locations.
Security
A fully managed SD-WAN service provider with experience in WAN underlay network management can help organizations streamline network operations and support new networking projects. Some services offered include the control of the underlying internet infrastructure on which SD-WAN is built. This allows organizations to replace costly circuits without compromising on performance or security.
The platform was specifically designed to prioritize mission-critical applications, resulting in high levels of visibility and control. It also significantly emphasizes automation, reducing hands-on management and increasing efficiency. This is achieved through AI to improve decision-making and support network security.
Its multi-connection support and flexible deployment options make it an excellent choice for businesses with multiple locations and diverse connectivity needs. The streamlined, user-friendly dashboard and real-time analytics also offer easy-to-understand insights into application performance. Its cloud integration capabilities and heightened security are particularly noteworthy. The product is provided on a pay-as-you-go model, making it affordable for all sizes of businesses and especially useful for growing companies.
Flexibility
SD-WAN enables business agility through network optimization, delivering organizational performance benefits. It relieves the burden of legacy hub-and-spoke WANs, allowing companies to connect and optimize cloud applications. This translates into higher speeds, lower latency, and a more reliable network environment.
Choosing the right managed services provider to support an effective SD-WAN deployment. Look for vendors that offer flexible, scalable solutions. They should have an extensive portfolio of services that provide cost optimization, direct cloud connectivity, and performance enhancements.
A vital feature of an SD-WAN is its ability to prioritize traffic, which improves network performance and reduces costs. Look for a provider with dynamic protocols that automatically detect and steer critical connections through the most efficient routes. Additionally, look for a solution that provides comprehensive analytics and real-time reporting. An effective SD-WAN should also offer granular control over network segmentation to isolate different parts of the business. SD-WAN, for example, provides a simple and easy-to-use user interface. It also supports multiple device groups with one or more service templates, enabling enterprises to deploy their network quickly and flexibly.
Experience
When choosing an SD-WAN, selecting one with experience is essential. This can reduce deployment and implementation costs and improve performance and security. Many providers have been working with SD-WAN for years and can help organizations understand how the technology works and what it can deliver.
Those with a lot of experience can also provide expert guidance on implementing the solution. This is especially helpful for large or complex environments. In addition, they can provide best practices and tips for optimizing the technology.
A comprehensively managed service provider can offer additional revenue-generating services like LAN access, IoT visibility and control, and multi-cloud on-ramps. This will allow the MSP to expand its customer base and increase revenues while reducing onboarding efforts for its customers.
Lastly, finding an SD-WAN that offers a single pane of glass management console to provide visibility and control over the network is critical. This includes connectivity, application performance and quality, and network security. Those with integrated optimization features will help improve throughput and efficiency, ensuring optimal application performance for end users.
