SD-WAN - What it means for enterprise networking, security, cloud computing

Software-defined wide area networks, a software approach managing wide-area networks, offers ease of deployment, central manageability and reduced costs, and can improve connectivity to branch offices and the cloud.

There have been significant changes in wide-area networks over the past few years, none more important than software-defined WAN or SD-WAN, which is changing how network pros think about optimizing the use of connectivity that is as varied as Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), frame relay and even DSL.

As the name states, software-defined wide-area networks use software to control the connectivity, management and services between data centers and remote branches or cloud instances. Like its bigger technology brother, software-defined networking, SD-WAN decouples the control plane from the data plane.

An SD-WAN deployment can include, existing routers and switches or virtualized customer premises equipment (vCPE) all running some version of software that handles policy, security, networking functions and other management tools, depending on vendor and customer configuration.   

One of SD-WAN’s chief features is the ability to manage multiple connections from MPLS to broadband to LTE. Another important piece is the ability to segment, partition and secure the traffic traversing the WAN. 

SD-WAN's driving principle is to simplify the way big companies turn up new links to branch offices, better manage the way those links are utilized – for data, voice or video – and potentially save money in the process.

As a recent Gartner report said, SD-WAN and vCPE are key technologies to help enterprises transform their networks from “fragile to agile.”

“We believe that emerging SD-WAN solutions and vCPE platforms will best address enterprise requirements for the next five years, as they provide the best mix of performance, price and flexibility compared to alternative hardware-centric approaches,” Gartner stated.   “Specifically, we predict that by 2023, more than 90% of WAN edge infrastructure refresh initiatives will be based on vCPE or SD-WAN appliances versus traditional routers (up from less than 40% today).”