SDWAN: The Simple Way to Never Go Down
and Why That Matters to Your Bottom Line
Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SDWAN) is the smart solution that turns low-cost internet links into a single, bulletproof network—even if one connection fails.
UPDATED!
SDWAN combines multiple internet connections into a single, resilient path, making a "bulletproof" network - keeping VoIP calls, meetings, and VPNs up and running without interruption
The Internet Myth: Why Relying on One Connection is Riskier Than Ever
If you run a business today, your internet connection isn't just a utility; it's the core artery of your entire operation. Cloud applications, VoIP phones, video conferencing, payment processing—if the internet goes down, so does your business.
For years, the solution to this risk was simple but expensive: buy a dedicated, high-cost leased line (like MPLS) or simply buy a second, slightly slower connection and hope for the best. Both solutions were clunky, unreliable, or prohibitively expensive.
Today, there is a better, smarter, and far more cost-effective way to secure your business against network failure: Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SDWAN).
SDWAN is a sophisticated technology, but its benefit is simple: it lets you combine multiple low-cost internet connections (like standard broadband, cable, or even 5G wireless) and treat them as one single, smart, bulletproof network.
This is more than just having two connections plugged in. This is intelligent software taking over to give your business three critical, non-negotiable benefits.
Benefit 1: Stop Worrying About Outages (The Uptime Guarantee)
Imagine driving on a multi-lane highway. If one lane is closed due to construction, you simply switch lanes and keep driving without stopping. Legacy networking is not like that; if one internet line fails, it forces the entire car (your application) to pull over, shut off, and restart on the new road.
A real SDWAN solution fixes this by enabling seamless failover.
The Problem: Without SDWAN, if your primary internet line goes dark, your VoIP call drops, your Zoom meeting freezes, and your session with your cloud CRM crashes. You lose valuable time, revenue, and customer trust.
The SDWAN Solution: SDWAN is the intelligent traffic controller. It constantly monitors the health of all your internet links simultaneously. If one link fails completely—say, a contractor accidentally cuts your fiber line—the SDWAN software instantly and gracefully shifts your active traffic to the remaining healthy link.
We call this Call Survivability. If you are on an active, sensitive VoIP call, that call should not drop when a line fails. You should experience no sudden disconnect, no need to log back in, and no frustration—only perhaps a momentary, barely noticeable adjustment in audio quality. If a solution can keep a highly sensitive VoIP call alive during a total link failure, you can bet it can keep your file downloads and cloud applications running smoothly.
This seamless protection eliminates the most common and costly disruption in small business IT: the unexpected internet outage.
Benefit 2: Get Fiber Speed Without the Fiber Price Tag (Smart Performance)
Every small business wants the blazing speed and reliable performance of a dedicated fiber connection, but few want the astronomical monthly cost that often comes with it. SDWAN allows you to maximize the performance of cheaper broadband connections by making them work smarter.
How? Through two key capabilities:
A. Intelligent Load Balancing
Load balancing is the core efficiency feature. Instead of forcing all your traffic down one main line until it’s clogged, SDWAN actively monitors the quality of every single connection you have plugged in.
Traffic Allocation: It intelligently splits traffic across all available paths, ensuring no single link is overwhelmed. If your team is on a big video call (high priority) while someone else is uploading a large file (low priority), the SDWAN solution instantly prioritizes the video, routing it down the fastest, healthiest path, while allowing the file upload to utilize the secondary link.
Packet-by-Packet Adaptation: A real SDWAN continuously measures quality metrics like latency and jitter. If one link gets momentarily slow (a common issue with cable or DSL), the SDWAN steers critical data around the congestion, ensuring you are always using the best-performing path at that exact moment. This optimization is what delivers "fiber performance out of any broadband connection."
B. Prioritize What Matters
Your network should be focused on your business goals. SDWAN allows you to apply simple business rules: Voice and video traffic always get priority. This ensures that even during busy times, the applications your customers interact with—your phones, your video demos, your customer service portals—always perform flawlessly.
Benefit 3: The Freedom to Move and Change (Flexibility and Portability)
For small businesses, agility is everything. Traditional networks lock you into your physical location and your chosen ISP. SDWAN provides the flexibility to grow and adapt.
Ditch the Leased Lines: SDWAN allows you to completely replace expensive, inflexible legacy solutions like old MPLS circuits with simple, low-cost broadband links, giving you the power to negotiate better prices with ISPs.
IP Address Portability: This is a hidden gem for small businesses. In a traditional setup, your public IP address (the identity your VPNs and customers use to find you) is tied to your ISP. If you switch ISPs, your IP changes, causing massive headaches, configuration changes, and downtime. With a cloud-native SDWAN, the SDWAN provider hosts your public IP address. This means if you move offices or change ISPs, you simply plug the new links into the box and go. Your identity remains the same. This is essential for zero-downtime flexibility.
The Critical Warning: Not All SDWAN Solutions Are Created Equal
The simple, powerful benefits described above—guaranteed uptime, fiber-like speed, and total flexibility—are only possible with a true, enterprise-grade SDWAN architecture.
Here is the essential warning, based on what we see every day in the market:
Many Solutions are Just Firewalls: Plenty of vendors are selling dual-WAN firewalls or basic load balancers and slapping the "SDWAN" label on them. These devices are incapable of the packet-by-packet, seamless switching required for call survivability. They will drop your calls and crash your sessions when a link fails.
Service Delivery Varies: Even if a provider uses a reputable SDWAN platform, the way they choose to deliver or configure the service can alter its performance. Some providers "bolt on" security (making a messy, slow solution) while others offer true, unified security (SASE). The difference in performance is massive.
If you think SDWAN makes sense for your business, you must check with a neutral third-party adviser first. The market is too complicated, and the stakes are too high to risk a costly mistake.
Let Cloud 9 Advisers help you make the right choice.
We are vendor-neutral technology advisers. We don’t push products; we simply help you evaluate the three main architectural models—DIY, Hybrid, and Cloud-Native—and shortlist the solutions that truly deliver all the benefits described here. We ensure you get a robust, resilient network that protects your business, saves you money, and delivers the ultimate benefit: peace of mind.
KITS: Keep IT Simple.
