How SD-WAN Providers Will Disrupt The Edge Router Market

SD-WAN Providers Will Disrupt The Edge Router Market…here is how.

Name: Cloudbrij
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The rise of SD-WAN networks is going to have some serious ramifications in the networking market. One of the biggest impacts that SD-WAN will have on the market is the disruption of edge routers – formerly essential for easy, fast access to core WAN systems, it’s highly likely that these specialized routers will be rendered obsolete by future SD-WAN technology.

Let’s take a deeper look at edge routers and the effects that SD-WAN connectivity will have on these specialized devices.

What Is An Edge Router?

Edge Routers (or, more generally, edge devices) are specialized devices which allow an entry point into a large corporate WAN – Wide Area Network, and typically is responsible for sending and receiving data from external corporate networks, as well as controlling WAN access from the internet-at-large.

These routers are the primary points at which all customer and internet connections to a corporate data center WAN are aggregated – they are absolutely crucial for connectivity to a traditionally-implemented WAN, and are usually built to have high redundancy, as a loss of connectivity at this layer essentially means a total blackout of a data center and its WAN to the internet-at-large.

Why Is SD-WAN Technology Going To Disrupt This Market?

It’s simple, really – edge routers are a necessity for traditionally-defined WANs, and when traditionally-defined WANs are overtaken by SD-WAN implementations in the near future, they will no longer be necessary.

Software-Defined WAN allows for multiple connections to be bundled into a comprehensive Wide Area Network. This means that a single robust connection to the outside of a corporate data center is no longer necessary, and this is the primary function of an edge router – to provide a robust link from the single-line traditional WAN to outside internet connections.

In an SD-WAN system, every network link can function as a WAN, with robust encryption and security, and highly-available QoS functionality. This means that each individual SD-WAN router can essentially take the place of an edge router, serving up secured WAN connections to the internet-at-large, as well as to other corporate data centers and cloud computing centers that are connected to the WAN.

SD-WAN Vs. Edge Routers

SD-WAN has three primary advantages when compared to a traditionally implemented WAN with edge routing.

Cost – The cost of an SD-WAN implementation is often 50% of the cost of a traditional WAN. This is because high-priority network traffic is automatically routed through high-QoS services, and lower priority traffic is fed through commercial broadband – allowing for large cost savings when renting privately leased communications lines.
Efficiency – Since SD-WAN allows for a comprehensive WAN that includes multiple network connections, each one of these connections can be automatically utilized to their full potential, and network traffic can be rerouted to use a connection that’s being underutilized. This increases the overall efficiency of the network massively.
Redundancy – If an edge router fails, all communication with the traditional WAN is lost. In addition, a loss of connectivity from your ISP can also mean total loss of communication. SD-WAN bundles multiple connections into a single secured network, allowing increased redundancy and easy accessibility even if a network provider has an emergency outage.

How can Cloudbrij help you with SD-WAN?

If you’re curious about the future of SD-WAN technology, and how it’s beating out traditional WAN systems using edge routers, talk to our team at Cloudbrij.

We can help you understand the benefits that a WAN system will have for your business, and our SD-WAN expertise will help us build the perfect, custom solution for your specific needs – whether you’re using an external corporate data center, cloud architecture, or even on-premises infrastructure.

Here are 3 great next steps for you: