Confused by SD-WAN? That is no surprise. Like “Cloud,” which can mean many things (SaaS, PaaS, public, private and hybrid), SD-WAN can as well. Most commonly, SD-WANs fall into these three categories:
1. Internet and Cloud Optimization: Latency, jitter, and packet loss can be killers for cloud based traffic such as Office 365, VoIP, and VPN. SD-WAN services provide real time monitoring and management of WAN traffic. Physical connections to multiple ISPs provide redundancy and resiliency. In many cases, MPLS QoS results can be achieved at lower cost and higher reliability with SD-WAN.
2. Cloud Managed Routers and Firewalls: Premise or hosted services allow you to configure and manage security settings through a web-based dashboard – Anytime, Anywhere.
3. VPN Services and Devices: Most “real” SD-WAN offerings fall into this category. They are meant as a lower cost tool to displace MPLS for site-to-site connections. At their core, these devices and services provide site-to-site VPNs, just like standard firewalls or routers.
Big Leaf, Aryaka, NTT, and VeloCloud are a few of our SD-WAN partners.
Which SD-WAN option is right for you?
Access Tech can help you discover, design, and deploy the best SD-WAN solution for your business.