Take your SDWAN Benefits to the next level. Combine digital transformation with sustainability, with help from SaaSCom.
SDWAN benefits have become increasingly evident to businesses investing in digital transformation initiatives in recent years. Companies are being forced to innovate at an accelerated pace, to keep up with emerging market trends, evolving customer demands and increased competition.
Unfortunately, old-fashioned network architectures weren’t actually created to handle the workloads and complexities of digitally transforming companies. They lack the scalability and agility businesses now rely on. Plus, to make matters worse, in traditional environments, many business critical services often end up distributed across multiple clouds, compromising network performance, increasing energy usage, and harming sustainability efforts.
Fortunately, SDWAN (Software Defined Wide Area Network) technologies offer a critical alternative to legacy WAN architecture. More flexible, cost-effective, and easier to manage than their counterparts, SDWAN, and accompanying SASE solutions empower companies to achieve their digital transformation goals.
They even drive a higher return on investment in real-time communications solutions (UCaaS and CCaaS), ensuring these services run optimally in any environment. Here, we’ll introduce the core SDWAN benefits companies can access, as well as how you can optimise your outcomes by investing in the latest trends in the SDWAN space.
The Main SDWAN Benefits for Businesses
SDWAN, or software-defined wide area network technology, is a solution that leverages software to assist with the management of wide area networks. This technology simplifies network management by giving organisations a centralised controller for their ecosystem. It also reduces costs, improves application performance and agility, and enhances user experiences.
Currently, SDWAN benefits are becoming increasingly obvious to business leaders, driving a rapid rise in market growth. By 2028, analysts predict the SDWAN market will be growing at a rate of 31.2%, and the accompanying SASE market is growing at a similar rate (25%).
These are some of the core advantages companies can unlock by leveraging SDWAN.
1. Simplified Network Management
Managing a comprehensive selection of WAN ecosystems is complex in today’s digitally transforming landscape. SDWAN provides companies with a single, centralised, and cloud-based management dashboard with a streamlined graphic user interface.
In a straightforward environment, companies can set policies for multiple network devices, and implement template-based zero-touch provisioning for different branches and locations. What’s more, SDWAN gives organisations complete visibility into their infrastructure, enabling detailed reporting of WAN and application performance for bandwidth forecasting.
2. Enhanced Security
Perhaps one of the most significant benefits off SDWAN is the ability to enhance network security, through traffic prioritisation, and optimised connectivity. While not all SDWAN solutions include built-in security capabilities, many can be integrated with security systems.
Many companies are even now pivoting to “SASE”, an evolution of SDWAN which prioritises security management, and centralised oversight for expanding network footprints. SASE solutions can supplement SDWAN capabilities with secure web gateways, cloud access security brokers and more. Plus, SDWAN offers granular visibility into all assets, assisting companies in implementing strategies that minimise the risk of data interception and breaches. Leading SDWAN providers even offer companies access to tools with application-aware policies, integrated threat protection and more.
3. Improved Network Performance
MPLS connectivity was the leader in enterprise WAN before mobile smart devices and cloud computing changed the business landscape. Unfortunately, MPLS solutions is great at routing traffic reliably between static locations, but it can’t meet the demands of cloud and mobile. Rather, companies using MPLS have to deal with the “trombone effect” where internet-bound traffic is backhauled to a data center, and then routed back through it, creating lag.
Where MPLS places a serious drag on network performance, harming CCaaS and UCaaS performance, SDWAN eliminates this issue. SDWAN enables policy-based routing which allows enterprises to leverage the best transport method for their data.
The result is a higher level of availability, and a more predictable, reliable service for all critical enterprise applications.
4. Optimized Connectivity
One of the biggest SDWAN benefits seen by companies is the ability to improve connectivity. SDWAN makes it possible to leverage various internet service providers based on need, location or pricing. Companies can leverage various connections to ensure network stability remains uncompromised, regardless of common connectivity issues.
SDWAN doesn’t just support traditional connection options either. It also includes support for newer WAN technologies like satellite and 5G, allowing for broader redundancy and coverage. SDWAN can easily shift traffic from a degraded WAN link to a better performing one, boosting resiliency, and improving user experiences on a massive scale.
The Trends that Enhance SDWAN Benefits in 2024
On a fundamental level, SDWAN represents the future of network management for any company embracing the cloud, mobility, and similar digital transformation trends. As companies continue to shift into a new future of connectivity, SDWAN benefits are also evolving with the rise of new trends. Here are some of the most significant trends worth watching if you’re looking for a way to optimise your return on investment.
1. Managed SD-WAN Solutions
Managed SDWAN solutions, or “SDWAN as a service” offerings are becoming increasingly popular as companies search for ways to simplify their digital transformation efforts. In this model, companies hand the responsibility of designing, deploying, monitoring, and maintaining their SDWAN to a third party. At the same time, business leaders retain control from a centralised user interface.
This approach ensures companies can easily monitor applications, devices, and traffic in their network, without having to deal with the technical complexity and maintenance issues themselves. This strategy can even help companies to save on costs, by reducing the amount of money companies need to invest in their network assets and WAN infrastructure.
2. Secure Remote Access
Remote access demand has accelerated as a result of hybrid and remote work movements. SDWAN benefits, combined with remote access solutions can drive incredible new opportunities for organisations. It helps businesses empower employees with the right technologies, while reducing the risks created by remote access connections.
SDWAN services with built-in security protocols such as SASE solutions, combine wide area networks with security services for a comprehensive management solution. SASE access control is perfectly suited to wide area networks with multiple remote networks, enabling hybrid and remote work. With SASE, companies can branch away from traditional security measures that only defend the “perimeter” of a specific network environment, and focus more on the cloud.
For instance, businesses can implement Zero Trust Network Access solutions, which allows all connection requests to be granted or denied based on various factors, such as location, contextual information, device health, and user identity, minimising remote work threats.
3. AI in Boosting SDWAN Benefits
Artificial Intelligence is everywhere in today’s technology landscape, so it should be no surprise that its coming to SDWAN ecosystems too. Studies show that AI-driven SDWAN solutions can ensure highly secure and reliable WAN connectivity in a business, without the overhead costs or complexity of traditional VPN tunnelling strategies.
AI can enhance network management in a range of ways. It can automatically identify network issues and automatically implement solutions to address them, giving SDWANs the power to self-heal. AI can also power dynamic path selection, using algorithms to monitor real-time conditions like bandwidth, latency, and packet loss. This data then allows the AI to select the best path for each data packet traversing the network, leading to significant performance boosts.
AI can also identify critical network traffic (like UCaaS and video conferencing calls), and prioritise them to reduce negative user experiences. Plus, machine learning algorithms can identify abnormal network behavior, malicious activities, and potential breach attempts, to reduce risk.
4. Evolving Connectivity Options
As mentioned above, one of the biggest SDWAN benefits to businesses is the ability to mix and match a wide range of network connection options. This includes giving organisations more opportunities to leverage mobile networks. Thanks to SDWAN, 4G and 5G are now being included in more branch network architectures, allowing for consistent accessibility and uptime.
The implementation of wireless solutions into the SDWAN ecosystem will create increased path diversity for application data, and enhance carrier diversity for business leaders. It will also help to minimise lag, by ensuring users can access connectivity options straight away, before wired links are enabled, and deliver exceptional failover connectivity.
5. Increasing Demand for Sustainability
Focus on sustainability is increasing as companies continue to face stricter regulatory requirements, and consumers and investors search for more eco-conscious vendors. SDWAN solutions can fundamentally improve a company’s ability to achieve their digital sustainability goals. This technology streamlines access to the cloud, enabling hybrid and remote work, reducing the need for large offices and long commutes.
The visibility that companies gain into their network ecosystem with an SDWAN solution also means they can make more intelligent decisions about how to distribute network traffic and leverage data centers to reduce energy consumption. SDWAN even allows companies to replace legacy firewalls, routers, and WAN optimisation tools with a single appliance. This further reduces an organisation’s power consumption and hardware footprint.
Exploring SDWAN Benefits: 3 Impressive Case Studies
Ultimately, the benefits of SDWAN are much greater than most companies realise. Advantages range from improved security and network connectivity, to enhanced reliability, easier WAN management, and even improved sustainability efforts.
For an insight into the impact SDWAN can have on a company’s digital transformation goals, let’s take a look at some case studies. Notably, all of these case studies are based on real customer stories, however we have removed the names of the companies involved for their privacy.
A Premium Travel Lifestyle Brand Optimise its Global Network
A leading travel lifestyle brand was looking for an opportunity to modernise its global network, reducing its carbon footprint, enhancing connectivity, and improving network security. They wanted a solution that would allow them to sustain consistent growth, while optimizing costs, reducing resource usage, and protecting their data from dangerous breaches.
Working with a leading provider in the networking sector, the company implemented a global SASE solution with a managed services approach. This enabled the company to mitigate the challenges of delivering reliable internet access and securing cloud workloads in its scaling ecosystem, while reducing costs.
Depending on the size of this travel lifestyle brand, a partnership with SaaSCom could have also enabled access to funding that would have offset countless tons of CO2 per year.
World-Leading Manufacturing Company Cuts Costs with SDWAN
A global manufacturing company was operating 50+ sites worldwide with an MPLS backbone. After a major acquisition, they collected a further 30 locations. The size of their network made the MPLS and IP VPN strategy they were using too expensive and complex to maintain.
The company needed to reduce its hardware footprint, enhance agility, and improve security. With the help of a leading SASE vendor, the company was able to update their MPLS network with a new SDWAN strategy, improving response times, reducing packet loss, and enhancing communication experiences over voice and video.
With the help of a partner like SaaSCom, this brand could have also accessed a transformation fund that would have further offset its CO2 emissions. A global manufacturer working with us accessed £220,000 in funding, and allocated £80k to CO2 offsetting, accounting to approximately 267 tonnes of CO2 per annum.
Shipping Services Company Saves Big on an SDWAN Implementation
Headquartered in the UK, a global shipping company was achieving exceptional growth, with offices and operations spanning the globe. As the number of sites managed by the company increased, its legacy telco MPLS system was struggling to keep up with demands.
The organisation turned to an SDWAN vendor, to help optimise performance and security across their entire ecosystem. The vendor implemented a comprehensive solution that led to a 55% price saving compared to the organisation’s existing MPLS system. Additionally, the firm was able to dramatically increase its IT bandwidth and enhance support of users worldwide.
Again, with the support of a partner like SaaSCom, this vendor could have also used this opportunity to offset its carbon footprint.
Unlock the Biggest SDWAN Benefits for Your Business
The benefits of SDWAN are clear to most companies. Not only SDWAN solutions empower companies to enhance their digital transformation initiatives, enabling improved cloud and mobile connectivity, but they can also reduce costs, and improve security.
Whether you’re looking for a way to streamline your network management strategy, improve user experiences, reduce data risks, or improve sustainability, SDWAN could be a valuable investment. With the help of the right partner, you can even take advantage of your transition to SDWAN technologies, to offset your carbon footprint.
At SaaSCom we help companies find the ideal partners for their digital transformation efforts, and access funding they can use to plant trees that offset carbon emissions. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you launch your SDWAN success story.
