If you’re looking for ways to improve an existing SD-WAN solution, you should take several key steps. These steps include identifying your needs, determining your needed features, and managing the SD-WAN. There are also a few security considerations to consider.
Make an Excellent SD-WAN Solution Even Better
When planning your SD-WAN architecture, start with a prioritized list of business-critical applications. This way, you can better decide how to allocate resources and optimize the network performance. It is also critical to determine where to place these applications within your SD-WAN. Explore more and learn about SD-WAN.
Once you’ve figured out your specific needs, find a vendor that offers a comprehensive SD-WAN solution. Look for one that integrates with other network services and shares information. If possible, find a vendor that offers zero-touch provisioning. This is an important cost-saving feature. In addition, a solution should offer a single pane of glass console that gives you total visibility, control, and analysis of your network. And it should be comprehensive in its coverage, including connectivity to the core network, cloud infrastructure, and local branch network.
A good SD-WAN solution should be highly reliable and secure. Many vendors offer SD-WAN services, but some are basic and lack intelligence, performance, and scale. Your digital transformation initiatives will suffer if your network is slow or unreliable. Conversely, a high-performing network is critical to success if your business relies on mobile and cloud-based applications.
An SD-WAN solution that integrates security and networking functions is the best option. This reduces time-consuming finger-pointing and allows you to allocate FTE resources in the most effective way. Moreover, a solution with security features will likely offer a lower TCO than one without such features.
Managing SD-WAN
When running an SD-WAN, one of the most important functions is managing performance. A good SD-WAN will monitor all WAN links and prioritize traffic based on the priority of the applications and users. This way, business-critical applications can be routed on the most reliable link, while lower-priority traffic can be routed on a lower-performance connection.
Managing SD-WAN can be a complicated process, but there are several ways to make it work for your business. A basic SD-WAN will allow you to provision new applications and make changes to QoS settings with zero touches, while more complex SD-WANs will allow you to program policies and deploy them to tens or even 1000s of nodes. Managing SD-WAN correctly can result in significant operational efficiency gains. It can also help reduce your overall attack surface and avoid security breaches.
Before implementing an SD-WAN, it is essential to make sure that you understand how it works. You may ask your SD-WAN provider about its deployment and provisioning process. For example, ask if zero-touch provisioning is offered. Also, check out the support options for various edge devices, including proprietary ones.
Security is an essential aspect of SD-WAN management. It starts with basic firewalls and ends with advanced features, such as Zero trust security and SASE (Secure Access Service Edge). These advanced security features are typically more expensive but offer more sophisticated checks for modern cloud applications.
Identifying Security Needs
You must first identify your security needs if you’re looking for an excellent SD-WAN solution. Generally, your SD-WAN should offer a stateful firewall and next-generation, context, and application-aware firewalls. Additionally, it should include features like intrusion detection, unified threat management (UTM), and a secure web gateway system. Finally, it should be able to service chain with other appliances and offer encryption at rest and in motion.
An SD-WAN solution will provide a comprehensive security solution, enabling you to identify your network and enforce policies across your locations. It will also provide a unified view of your entire network, giving administrators a centralized view of your network and consistent security across multiple sites and cloud providers. Before SD-WAN solutions, remote office connections were usually backhauled to a corporate data center. However, with the rise of cloud and Internet connections, your WAN users are exposed to more sophisticated threats.
While a good SD-WAN will provide a centralized console for security management, your organization must drive your security strategy. Your security strategy will be based on the traffic flowing over the network, and you’ll want to segment your traffic based on its source. That way, you’ll be able to monitor unauthorized traffic and eliminate threats before they reach your data.
