SDWAN Is Exploding: Which Solution Fits Your Business?

SDWAN is exploding. Andrew Lerner of Gartner stated in 2017 that “SDWAN is delivering on the promise. In just three short years, adoption has taken off, and we now estimate 6,000 plus paying SDWAN customers with more than 4,000 production implementations.” With so many SDWAN solutions out there it can be difficult to sort through the field and find the best fit for your organization.

BCM One has identified three major SDWAN solutions:

• On-Premises Solutions: Control for SDWAN is on premises. That might be a physical presence or it could be in a private cloud. The entire SDWAN server runs inside your domain.
• Controller-Based Solutions: In this case, the SDWAN controller is offered as a service. The controller sits in the supplier’s cloud and is offered on a subscription basis. End users lease the controller, which sits in the supplier’s domain.
• Gateway-Based Solutions: This is a middle mile solution. The SDWAN supplier builds out a global meshed architecture. Your organization is responsible for connecting branch sites to the closest gateway.

Each solution offers increased security because data is encrypted from point A to point B. This can differ throughout the day or from one day to the next, be it direct to site or spoke to spoke. However, the traffic will be encrypted and tunneled using the most current encryption technologies.

Managed service can create on-demand tunnels to your cloud provider seamlessly. End users run software on their cloud provider. Now that’s a part of your SDWAN domain. There’s secure connectivity to all resources on your network, as well as basic firewall functionalities in SDWAN appliances.

It’s relatively easy for organizations to move from one type of SDWAN to another as they scale, though that’s not generally necessary. Each style of SDWAN scales easily in its own way. It’s more about finding the SDWAN solution best suited for your organizational needs. And it’s important to remember that SDWAN is not a replacement for MPLS, but rather a way to enhance the effectiveness of MPLS by adding a complementary tool to the toolbox.

As organizations shift toward cloud-based solutions, availability becomes even more important. You must maintain availability at each location as well as your headquarters. You might also have compliance requirements with regard to availability. Finally, it’s important to consider how existing solutions will integrate with new ones.

BCM One boasts a highly technical staff capable of planning, managing and building an SDWAN solution specifically designed for your organization and its unique needs. From integration to architecture to traffic routing, we can design the perfect SDWAN solution for you.

Listen to our series of short podcasts discussing the exciting and innovative benefits of SDWAN. Then talk to a representative about how BCM One can put SDWAN to work for your organization to improve communications, increase security and reduce costs.