Table of Contents
Introduction
Most businesses rely on networks to gain a competitive edge in an environment of network-edge and cloud-edge economies. One of the standard solutions for enhanced networking is internet leased lines for Wide Area Networking (WAN). It allows businesses to connect their internal networks to the internet. It is often used for applications requiring a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection, such as video conferencing, live streaming, and more. A dedicated internet connection provides a direct, private connection between an organization and its internet service provider (ISP).
Thus businesses can have a high-capacity internet connection that provides a constant and reliable connection between business office locations to the internet, to connect to other networks or service providers. But networks have inherent issues and limitations, such as complex infrastructure needing constant monitoring and management of the network. A new type of networking that addresses these issues and improves WAN performance and reliability using software is SD-WAN networks (Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN).
It is a software overlay that runs on the internet leased lines-built WAN to dynamically route network traffic by choosing between broadband, MPLS or 4G/LTE connectivity for efficient data transport.
Why has SD-WAN become important?
The higher level of control drives SD-WAN as a networking solution for organizations to manage their networks. Since SD-WAN is software-driven, many of the processes that earlier needed dedicated staff are automated, making the network efficient, reliable and a great return on investment.
The main reason businesses are switching towards SD-WAN are:
- Cloud adoption: As more and more businesses move their applications to the cloud, they need a way to connect their various locations to the cloud in a fast, reliable, and secure manner. SD-WAN can help by optimizing traffic flows and providing a secure connection to the cloud.
- Internet usage: The increasing use of the internet for business purposes has made it essential for companies to have a fast, reliable, and secure internet connection. SD-WAN can help by optimizing traffic over the internet and ensuring that critical applications receive the bandwidth they need.
- Hybrid WAN: Many organizations have a mix of different types of connectivity, such as broadband, 4G, and MPLS. SD-WAN can help by allowing companies to use these different types of connectivity in a unified way and optimize traffic flow across them.
- Cost-effectiveness: Traditional WANs can be expensive to operate and maintain, primarily if they rely on dedicated circuits such as leased lines. SD-WAN can reduce costs by allowing companies to use less costly types of connectivity, such as broadband, and by simplifying the management of the WAN.
What are the business advantages of SD-WAN?
There are several business advantages of SD-WAN. Primarily it improves performance and increases flexibility. SD-WAN can improve the performance of a company’s WAN by optimizing traffic flow and ensuring that critical applications receive the bandwidth they need. It allows companies to use different types of connectivity in a unified way, which gives them more flexibility in connecting their locations and accessing the internet.
SD-WAN can help reduce WAN costs by allowing companies to use less expensive types of connectivity, such as broadband, and by simplifying the management of the WAN. It makes it easier for companies to respond to changing business needs by allowing them to quickly and easily add or remove locations from the WAN or change how traffic is routed. Hence, it improves the agility of the business.
It improves security by encrypting traffic and providing a secure connection to the internet. It enhances reliability by providing multiple paths for traffic and automatically routing around outages or other issues.
How do internet leased lines improve networks?
There are several ways in which internet leased lines can improve network quality. Internet leased lines provide a dedicated connection that is kept from other users, making it less prone to outages and performance issues. These can provide very high speeds, with options ranging from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps and improve security with encryption to secure data transmission, which makes them more secure than a shared connection.
Internet leased lines provide a fixed amount of bandwidth dedicated to an organization, which means the company can use as much bandwidth as it needs without worrying about running out. It also helps companies overcome low latency issues – the time it takes for data to be transmitted between two points. Hence it supports speed-sensitive technologies like voice-over IP (VoIP) and video conferencing. Such applications need fast response times and consume very high bandwidth because of videos. One of the significant advantages of using internet leased lines is the well-defined service level agreements (SLAs). Internet leased lines often come with SLAs that guarantee certain levels of performance and uptime, which can be important for organizations that depend on the internet for critical business functions.
Why does your business need SD-WAN on internet leased lines?
Your business should consider using SD-WAN and Internet leased lines if you need fast, reliable, and secure WAN connections to support critical business applications. You can leverage the following benefits by using SD-WAN on top of Internet leased lines. Your network will improve performance as SD-WAN can optimize traffic flow over the Internet leased lines, ensuring that critical applications receive the bandwidth they need and improving overall WAN performance.
You will also have higher flexibility since the software overlay allows you to use internet leased lines from multiple service providers to use different types of connectivity (such as broadband, 4G, and MPLS) in a unified way. This gives you more flexibility in connecting your locations and accessing the internet. Security is enhanced since it encrypts traffic over the Internet leased lines.
SD-WAN can help improve your WAN’s security and make your network more reliable. It can increase the reliability of your WAN by providing multiple paths for traffic over the Internet leased lines and automatically routing around outages or other issues. It lets you gain a competitive edge because of its cost-effectiveness.
How to improve the networking experience of your organization?
SD-WAN network services simplify the management of your business network. SD-WAN can simplify the management of your WAN by providing a centralized control plane that allows you to configure and monitor your network easily. This can save time and reduce the complexity of managing your network. By using SD-WAN to optimize traffic flow over internet-leased lines, you can reduce WAN costs and simplify the management of your WAN.
