SD-WAN is a cost-effective and reliable networking solution that can improve branch office connectivity. It also offers various features that boost application performance, including intelligent routing and path selection. Small businesses should consider using an SD-WAN solution to boost their performance and increase employee morale. It can help the company to grow and stay competitive.

Cost-Effectiveness

SD-WAN is an excellent option if you’re searching for a cost-effective approach to keep up with your growing business or want to avoid investing in new IT equipment. This networking technology offered by reputable vendors like Versa Networks has cost-effective benefits, including increased resiliency, reduced bandwidth consumption, and enhanced security.

Increasing bandwidth demands from Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, cloud services, and remote workforces require more WAN bandwidth than ever. 

With SD-WAN, businesses can leverage broadband connections for more affordable, higher-bandwidth links. It allows them to cut costs while still getting the performance they need for high-bandwidth applications that demand more WAN resources.

The ability to choose the best path for data packets also reduces latency and jitter. It can make supporting bandwidth-intensive, real-time applications like video calling and streaming much more accessible. SD-WAN enhances security by delivering pre-defined policies across your network based on rules and traffic types. It allows you to roll out security functions to users and locations as needed. You can improve worker productivity and customer satisfaction with less downtime, contributing to more significant sales and growth. The speed and agility of your WAN can also help you to meet growing application demands and deliver new services more quickly.

Scalability

When a small business needs more connectivity in multiple locations, it can save money using SD-WAN to replace a traditional VPN. It can reduce costs and improve network performance by allowing users to access applications, data, and large files from remote sites. With an SD-WAN, you can create rules prioritizing specific processes and applications for high-performance connections. For example, it helps ensure that a social media app does not degrade video conferencing or voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP) calls.

It can reduce latency and boost productivity. It also gives administrators more control and flexibility, enabling them to make changes remotely through point-and-click software.

Another advantage of SD-WAN is its ability to support applications hosted in various environments, including on-premises data centers and private or public cloud platforms. It allows a business to use a single network solution that is flexible enough to meet their specific requirements for application performance, access, and security.

Another benefit of SD-WAN is its integration of a unified policy framework that provides visibility and simplifies IT management across multiple sites, data centers, and cloud/SaaS environments. It can increase efficiencies and deliver a higher quality of service to a company’s employees, customers, and partners.

Reliability

SD-WAN can be an ideal solution when a small business faces network capacity problems. It can improve bandwidth and performance while providing remote users with fingertip access to data and cloud applications. Unlike legacy WANs, SD-WAN allows organizations to monitor and manage traffic through a centralized controller, improving network performance and security. It also lets administrators offload noncritical applications running on the WAN to the cloud, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Another benefit of SD-WAN is that it is scalable and easy to manage. Adding new branch offices or remote work sites is done through software that eliminates the need to procure, ship, configure and control hardware. The IT team can use web-based consoles to detect network changes, execute configurations and modify policy. It allows administrators to scale network capacity in response to changing business needs. IT managers can also create templates to replicate routing policies and other settings at all locations, including home office remote workers. It saves time and effort and reduces vulnerabilities resulting from patchwork. As a result, SD-WAN can help reduce the workload on IT professionals, who can now focus on revenue-generating opportunities that add to their bottom line. Moreover, it can streamline how businesses manage their networks and make system adjustments to ensure agility.

Security

SD-WAN solutions provide enterprise-level encryption across every link in the WAN. It ensures that network traffic is protected from all attackers and is more effective than VPN tunnels. Depending on the chosen solution, this encryption is dynamically established using Internet protocol security (IPSec) or proprietary tunneling protocols.

Moreover, SD-WAN devices should have SSL certificates that cryptographically confirm their identity. It is done through a Certificate Signing Request process. A third-party root certificate authority should generate the certificate. For more advanced security, consider selecting an OOB console server with advanced encryption for the hardware and management connections. It should also support zero-trust features. In addition, network segmentation is an essential feature of any SD-WAN solution. It enables organizations to control access to sensitive corporate data and applications. It also supports regulatory compliance and isolates attacks within a smaller area easily.