Moving to the Cloud is all about efficiency.
Having applications and infrastructure on cloud means greater agility, speed and security.
However, connecting to the internet without compromising application performance has become a challenge, especially nowadays in multi-cloud infrastructures. The threats one's exposed to, the suboptimal user experience, as well as the network management are the factors that make it difficult.
This is amplified if we are dealing with realities with many users, many locations, many devices, or even generically with several variable characteristics.
Bandwidth support within the network is therefore needed without undermining ease of use.
Here where SD-WAN solution was born.
What does SD-WAN mean? Why should we adopt it?
The term SD-WAN can be summarized as "software-defined approach to network management."
It is a secure and scalable architecture on cloud. It allows any user to be connected to any application, wherever it may be.
It is a complete and integrated security solution. It can be exploited for its efficiency in realities with multiple locations, with systems and/or applications on Cloud. It can also be connected to colocation structures. The fact that everything is operational and managed from a single dashboard increases its value. This is essentially an intelligent bandwidth management from which you can see where inefficiencies are and increase the overall system performance.
Why is there a need for SD-WAN?
The volume of data, devices and users is increasing, putting a strain on traditional network architectures and increasing the problems for networking and corporate security. Increasing bandwidth, improving connectivity, deploying multi-cloud applications autonomously: all this becomes a costly and time-consuming expense. Implementing an SD-WAN solution has therefore become mandatory.
Such a tool improves performance, reduces costs, increases security, simplifies management, and optimizes the application experience itself. The SD-Wan solution protects traffic from problems, but not only that. It also adapts to changes and resolves gaps that can compromise the network.
Such an infrastructure is to be welcomed by corporate network architects, since it allows:
- Simplified scalability: with SD-WAN you can centrally manage configurations and policies in multi Cloud environments, enabling security across many locations in minutes;
- Seamless integration between systems: through APIs, IT teams are able to flexibly integrate existing operating environments;
- Unhindered implementation path, indeed only advantages such as cost reduction, without waning from the security point of view.
CloudFire adopts Cisco's solution. Cisco has acquired Viptela to reconfirm its position as an industry leader.
SD-WAN: the use cases
SD-WAN technology is applicable to any reality or area where there is a geographical network connection. For example, from various data centres, both private and on cloud, connections between the different locations of an organisation, connections with close partners such as franchises. The use cases can be listed according to the objectives that the SD-WAN is committed to achieve.
- Security and Automation
Generally speaking, companies prefer agile solutions with controllers, high levels of security and performance adapted to today's working environment. Thanks to SD-WAN, it is possible to make any business agile and secure. - Optimized application performance
Using a single dashboard, analytical data and historical information can be studied in time to solve the problem, applying useful measures to mitigate network problems in real time - Direct access to the Internet
SD-WAN enables increased management efficiency by monitoring its security and possible threats, segmenting and prioritizing network traffic based on the criticality of applications - Security from remote locations
Indeed, it counteracts the latest threats, ensures consistent quality of experience and reliable performance for critical applications. - Multi-cloud access
SD-WAN offers the opportunity to connect remote locations and operators with the multi-cloud, streamlining central management, gaining visibility and ensuring strong service capillarization.
Transition from Connectivity to SD-WAN: the benefits
When we think of the traditional network, its architecture is limited to: company - branch - data centre.
The need to modernise the technological infrastructure of their WANs in order to better manage cloud and as-a-service applications also brings with it a new need for more bandwidth, but also a greater reliability and major security for data.
SD-WAN solutions are therefore proposed to the market as an alternative to traditional MPLS connections (multiprotocol label switching). These are technologies for IP networks that allow multi-protocol traffic flows to be routed between source and destination nodes. This approach is managed through the usage of identifiers between pairs of adjacent routers and through simple operations on the labels themselves. Reliability and consistency of performance are certainly a pro. However, an increase in capacity is indeed very costly.
The advantages of choosing SD-WAN as a connectivity type are manifold:
- Dynamic traffic routing capability: in fact, from the dashboard it is possible to route bandwidth, depending on the bandwidth and latency requirements of applications, criticality and priority of services, security criteria, etc;
- Reduced traffic consumption, due to the caching and compression mode of transmitted data, it goes without saying that the cost of traffic is lower;
- Improved network security, through to data encryption and virtual network access management, there is the possibility of including firewalls of various types;
- Increased network robustness by connecting the most critical end points through more parallel connections;
- Ability to simultaneously side-by-side and manage data lines from different providers regarding communication services (a plus already present in CloudFire's connectivity offering);
- Reduced network management effort, with a single management console comes greater simplicity and improved automation of more operational, configuration and network management tasks.
In conclusion, to keep up with the speed and agility of cloud services, we strongly recommend implementing the smart grid as well.
With CloudFire's SD-WAN, which uses Cisco technology, you can do this at an unparalleled price.
