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What SD-WAN Companies aren’t telling you

What SD-WAN Companies aren’t telling you

What SD-WAN Providers Aren’t Telling You

SD-WAN is a huge topic in today’s networking world. More and more business are turning to SD-WAN as a great, cost-effective way to connect their networks and ensure top QoS (Quality of Service) while minimizing reliance on the over-provisioning of expensive services like MPLS.

The rapid adoption of SD-WAN has spurred quite a bit of competition – there are now dozens of companies chomping at the bit for market share, and everywhere you turn, some new SD-WAN startup has announced that they’ve finally found the “secret sauce” that’s going to make SD-WAN the new industry networking standard.

But here’s what they’re not telling you.

All SD-WAN Companies Are The Same… Sort Of

All SD-WAN companies are the same. That is, all SD-WAN companies offer the same service. Where they differ is in their specific approach – and that specific approach can vary quite widely. When it comes to the process of how to select an SD-WAN provider, it’s best to think of their service like a pizza.

Each SD-WAN company is making a pizza – but their “toppings” differ. One SD-WAN service might be offering a pizza with just pepperoni – and the pizza is pretty cheap, and pretty tasty. Another might be making a pizza with gourmet ingredients, and it might taste a better – but it’ll cost you. However, if you really need olives, knowing the provider who can deliver is important.  Some of these distinguishing features could be technologies like virtualized WAN, Long haul WAN optimization, differing levels of appliance based security, or specialized routing features – each individual SD-WAN approach is different.

However, the product does the same basic thing at the end of the day – a method by which you can ensure a great quality of service when you need it, and reduce costs and increase redundancy for less-than-mission-critical web traffic.

This is not to say that these slight differences in implementation and architecture aren’t important – they are – it’s important to understand which of these features are offered by which provider before you waste months on a proof of concept.

The True Test Of An SD-WAN Company Isn’t Just In Performance – But Also In Service

The best SD-WAN implementation in the world can fail with poor service and implementation. Service is absolutely the most important factor when it comes to how to choose an SD-WAN provider.

It doesn’t matter what life-changing benefits the service provider gushes about on their website – if you contract with a company who offers a subpar service, you’ll get a subpar service.

Using an SD-WAN is a big step for your network infrastructure. If you decide to implement SD-WAN technology, it will become the backbone of your WAN infrastructure, and will almost certainly become one of the most important pieces of your networking and IT infrastructure.

This aspect of an SD-WAN company is absolutely the most important – and the Cloudbrij dedication to total quality and support is what truly distinguishes our company from the rest of the pack.

At Cloudbrij, we work through a comprehensive, four-step process to ensure a successful deployment of service. We are very familiar with the differences and feature sets of SD-WAN providers in the market and will lead you to the right decision out of the gate.  We assess your unique needs, design and plan an SD-WAN system for your specific needs, and deploy your SD-WAN system with a phased migration plan that will not impact your business.

And we don’t stop there. The fourth step is the most important – support. We will always support our products, and offer services up to full network monitoring and management, if necessary. We will issue you monthly reports on usage and performance, monitor your circuits in real-time, and manage your billing with monthly bill reviews – no mystery fees!

If you’re looking for one of the very best SD-WAN Providers in the market, you’ve found the right company. schedule a free consultation or visit our website today.

What is Software Defined WAN?

What is Software Defined WAN?

What Is Software Defined WAN?

What is SD-WAN? This is a common question for business leaders these days. If you’re a business leader who has been paying attention to new, groundbreaking networking technologies, you’ve probably heard of SD-WAN – Software-Defined Wide Area Networks. And while you may know the basics about wide area networks, the concept of a software-defined WAN might be a little bit foreign to you.

That’s okay – we’re here to help you understand the basics about Software-Defined WAN, why it’s different than traditionally defined WAN implementations, and how it can be used to lower your costs, increase your efficiency, and allow for increased redundancy and availability of your network.

The Basics about SD-WAN – SD-WAN Defined

What is SD-WAN? SD-WAN is exactly what it says on the box – a Software-Defined Wide Area Network. So let’s break that down.

Software-Defined Wide Area Networks accomplish the same basic tasks as their traditionally implemented cousins – they allow for rapid transmission of mission-critical data over long distances, usually utilizing multi-client, MPLS lines, fiber, T1’s, Broadband or any other connection with an Ethernet handoff.  By doing so, SD-WAN offers more flexibility, greater speed to market, redundancy and higher bandwidth at less cost than MPLS by itself.

The primary difference between an SD-WAN and a traditionally-defined WAN lies within the “Software” part of the term. SD-WAN technology uses proprietary software and routers to bundle together multiple internet connections into one integral whole, whereas a traditional WAN only uses a single connection.

This means that you can utilize your high-speed MPLS line alongside commercial broadband, or even LTE. By combining the bandwidth of each of these connections, and routing traffic to the appropriate network (high-priority data transfers on MPLS rented lines, web traffic on commercial broadband, etc) SD-WAN can allow for massively increased efficiency, reliability, and even lower cost.

How is SD-WAN Better Than Traditional WAN Implementations?

Now that we have gone to the trouble to define SD-WAN, it’s time to look at the advantages that it provides.

While a traditional WAN is composed of a single, high-bandwidth line, software-defined WAN systems use software and specialized routers to combine multiple connections into a single WAN. So why is that better?

  • Lower Cost – If your traditional WAN uses a dedicated line rented from a service provider for its data, chances are that you are paying for much more bandwidth than you need. This is called “over-provisioning”, and it’s an age-old method of ensuring that you have all the bandwidth you need during peak loads. However, the fact that you have so much bandwidth lying around dormant 95% of the time means you’re wasting a lot of money. SD-WAN can allow you to downsize your dedicated line, and use it exclusively for mission-critical traffic, decreasing costs massively – up to 50-80% in some cases. In many cases, you may be able to replace a dedicated line altogether and utilize multiple broadband connections… dropping your cost even more.
  • Higher Efficiency – The smart traffic routing capabilities of SD-WAN implementations lead to much better network efficiency. If you have three total network lines and two are totally overloaded while one lies barely used, your SD-WAN system will dynamically offload the necessary traffic to the unused line, maximizing the efficiency of your available bandwidth.
  • Increased Redundancy and Higher Availability – Emergency outages and ISP maintenance don’t have to be a nightmare where you lose all connectivity with your WAN. The “bundling” achieved by SD-WAN implementations ensures that you always have some kind of active network connections that can begin carrying traffic if one of your other communications lines suddenly goes out. This massively increases redundancy and leads to a system with sky-high availability.

How To Move To SD-WAN? Ask The Experts at Cloudbrij!

If you’re looking for more information on how to move to SD-WAN, get in touch with the experts at Cloudbrij today. We specialize in custom SD-WAN solutions tailor-made for each one of our customers, and we would love to have a conversation with you about the advantages and savings that you can enjoy if you shift to an SD-WAN network solution

Visit our website and schedule a consultation today. You’ve got nothing to lose, and an incredible network to gain.