Switching to SD-WAN? Here’s what you need to know.

In a world where global enterprise is dependent on shared data and optimized workflows, many companies are moving away from inflexible legacy WAN networks and towards an internet-centric model, resulting in the rapid adoption of SD-WAN.

SD-WAN can significantly reduce costs, improve connectivity and have a big impact on end user productivity – but first you need to set it up. Many different components can affect the transition to SD-WAN and overall network performance, from conducting a thorough site survey to preparing adequate bandwidth.

Where should I start with SD-WAN?

Before you implement SD-WAN, it's important to know what the critical business requirements for your business are. This can include any legacy applications that rely on a hub site or datacenter, and any SaaS or cloud-based application. Your business requirements are important to build a network design that makes the most sense for your user environment, in transitioning from a legacy WAN network to SD-WAN.

What’s the best access technology to use?

SD-WAN technology is wonderful in that it builds secure VPN tunnels over any access technology. This can be existing MPLS, broadband, DIA, or even 4G cellular. SD-WAN technology can leverage multiple access links to better improve site reliability and user experience.

How do you prepare a site for SD-WAN deployment?

Site readiness is critical for successful deployment. Like any Internet based service, a site needs to be able to receive both Internet access lines and the SD-WAN router to leverage the SD-WAN network. This can include physical requirements such adequate power, a place to rack and stack equipment, patch cords, etc., all the way to ensuring network IP addresses and VLAN information needed for configuration is accurate.

How long will it take to deploy SD-WAN?

Every SD-WAN deployment varies on the customer’s need. Design sessions, and turnup schedules dictate the length of time it takes for a project to complete from start to finish. Once a these elements are agreed upon, and order and provisioning is underway, then test and turnup for new greenfield deployments can take 2 hours or less (assuming underlay access and SD-WAN router are already onsite), whereas sites with complex migration or existing topologies may take up to 4-6 hours for completion.

How do you judge the amount of bandwidth needed from carriers?

How much bandwidth that is needed, is typically a function on the existing size of the circuits used by a customer, and how much forecast in user growth is expected. The benefit is that commodity internet access is for the most part much cheaper than MPLS, so on a cost-by-cost comparison, most customers will benefit with much larger Internet circuits, that can carry their SD-WAN traffic, as well as enjoy more direct access to SaaS and cloud providers through local Internet breakout.

How should I approach SD-WAN security?

Security is always important in SD-WAN design. Although SD-WAN tunneled traffic is encrypted and secured, any time you allow users to access the Internet directly from a site, then a security solution is required. This can include an on-premise or a cloud-based firewall solution secure your users and their traffic to the Internet.

Are there any errors common to SD-WAN? How can they be avoided?

SD-WAN relies on the underlay. Meaning for it offer excellent service it still needs reliable Internet access, regardless of the access type. A common mistake many customers make, is assume that simple broadband circuits is enough for their needs, and in many use cases it is. However, if business requirements dictate high quality connectivity especially in voice or video applications, then a good underlay is needed.

Although SD-WAN has numerous mitigation techniques to improve the user experience, it all begins with reliable Internet access.

How can I best optimize SD-WAN connectivity?

Once underlay circuits are determined, then it falls on traffic steering policies, QoS, application routing, and SaaS optimization techniques to further optimize SD-WAN connectivity. These are all parts of typical SD-WAN deployments to ensure the highest quality of service.

Outside of these techniques, Expereo offers its XCA Hub for on-net Internet access. XCA stands for Expereo Cloud Acceleration and is a platform built on optimizing the underlay with sophisticated BGP route optimization. This ensures that outbound user traffic is always traversing the best path across the Internet.

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