SDWAN (I know there is supposed to be a hyphen in there (SD-WAN) but for everyone's sake can we all just drop that from now on?)
what is it? why do I need?
Software Defined Wide Area Network is a subset of SDN-Software Defined Networking (look it up). SDWAN is a lot of wonderful things and from my experience fulfills a lot of wonderful claims, but buyer beware, there are numerous providers out there claiming their product/service is SDWAN. and let's face it... they just aren't.
I think at this point every, single telecom carrier has jumped on this bandwagon, and for good reason. It is a big deal. It is a profound technology and it is an integral piece of a bulletproof internet/WAN connection strategy. Many software and equipment manufacturers have jumped aboard, too. So much so that the market is thoroughly flooded with options.
- In my humble (and totally correct) opinion a good SDWAN provider worth its salt should be able to:
- Accelerate traffic
- Optimize traffic
- Balance traffic (as in load balance)
- Prioritize traffic (both outbound and inbound traffic), and
- have IP Address portability
All at the same time
Coming from a background in voice communications, I generally have a higher standard towards the network than others. Therefore my (personal) test for SDWAN providers might be stricter than others, as well. All of the above combined in a "real" SDWAN solution should be able to provide "call survivability".
Call survivability: let's say we've got our new SDWAN service and we have any two (or more) types of internet links plugged into it. We also have VoIP (SIP) trunking or a good UCaaS solution. The SDWAN is working as it should, prioritizing voice packets and sending those packets over the best link at the best time (or even both at the same time). I'm on an active call then, all of a sudden, all but one of my links go down. What happens to my call?
Nothing! that's right nothing should happen to that call. no dropping, no VoIP phone reregistration. NOTHING! (ok, well maybe a slight degradation in call quality, but otherwise, with the right connection strategy, nothing should happen to that active call).
That is what a "real" SDWAN should do for you and your business. If it can do that with highly sensitive protocols used for voice and other real-time data, just imagine what it can do for all your other data.
Now, I will say that not all data requires this higher-standard of connectivity but, all the real-time traffic like voice and video certainly do. With that type of connection strategy, you can bet that all the other traffic you stuff in your pipes (and smoke) can be managed with the same level of care and attention.
In this age of increasing cloud usage, SDWAN is more important than ever.
