SD-WAN serving optimization
of network performance

SD-WAN is a segment of Software Defined Networking (or SDN). It is defined by a specific approach of network management. This management permits to pilot physical infrastructures in a virtual and centralized mode. Such a way of piloting is based on working with different software layers.

Software Defined Wide Area Networking has the capacity to address WAN issues that are not especially  dealt with by any standard SDN platform. SD-WAN resumes the two main advantages of standard SDN that are agility and cost saving. Hence, enterprise large networks may benefit from these two advantages. Thanks to solutions such as SD-WAN, WAN management and application performance can be optimized easily and with a minimum cost.

Enterprises are using the Cloud and different business applications to improve their productivity and remain competitive. In this new context, facing new needs, IT organizations resort to hybrid networks. Hybrid networks have the specificity to mix MPLS and Internet. This mix gives a simplified access to applications that are hosted in a standard way as well as to applications in the Cloud and access to the web.

However, it is complex to manage this type of network for each site of the network is different. In the meantime, applications are more and more crucial and sensitive. It is essential to protect applications in order to guarantee their performance and the experience of users. Yet, standard technologies demand deep IT expertise and the result obtained with standard technologies is not as flexible and vibrant as wished. Here come SD-WAN: SD-WAN offers a simplified and agile WAN management as well as a solution to warrant application performance. SD-WAN appears to be THE inevitable solution.

It is possible to improve considerably application performance through advanced mecanisms of application recognition and QoS mecanims and relying on SLA (Service Level Agreement) specific to applications and codecs. As well, network links can be cleverly selected and in an agile way according to constraints of various applications.

Profitting from mecanisms of zero-touch provisioning and from a centralized management platform, provisioning,  deployment and management of remote sites are simplified. Such a mecanism based on the exploration of the network infrastructure allows to automate some configuration tasks that may be complex, long and at the origin of errors because they are often based on « CLI » (Command Line Interface).

Thanks to SD-WAN, these tasks are now simply done, in a systematic and automatic way prior to each deployment of new sites or in case of configuration change.

SD-WAN has economic impact at two levels:

An SD-WAN platform allows full visibility on traffic passing throug the WAN, heading to a Datacenter or to a Cloud service or to Internet.

Working with technical and objective metrics (flow rate, latency, packet loss rate and session number…), it is possible to obtain detailed reports and to offer a full vision of the behavior of a network and of applications transitting through the network.

Each link benefits from its own security level and it is important to pay attention to applications transitting on each link.

Working with mecanisms of application recognition, we may partition flows by level of criticality and hence warrant that flows will be well conveyed.

Moreover, thanks to the overlay mecanism, we can reinforce further security by adding a notion of cryptage for point-to-point flows between all the sites.

Finally, some SD-WAN solutions including a firewall module permit to improve the filtering of flows coming in and out from each site. Thus, a such firewall module avoid to deploy any additional firewall on sites.

SD-WAN is presented as revolutionaly by IT players and will be sort of more and more compulsory for enterprises. Since 2015, many manufacturers and startups have rushed onto this market opportunity and developed their own approach to SD-WAN. It is indeed a good position for a very big growth is planned for this new market. On the matter, IDC says SD-WAN market should represent around 6 Milliards of US $ by 2020.

We stand up as specialists in network performance and we offer customized accompaniment around SD-WAN to our customers.

With lab test, POC building, architecture designing, deployment, maintaining in operational condition, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week support, e-Qual answers your network issues in a customized way and a managed services philosophy.