SD-WAN Trends of 2022

Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) handle the exponentially increasing and complex network traffic cloud computing brings. SD-WAN enables corporate users to securely connect to applications via MPLS, LTE, and broadband internet services and applies central control to intelligently and reliably route traffic to SaaS and IaaS providers over the wide-area network. This way offers a user experience that increases application performance and business productivity while reducing IT costs.

Before the pandemic, many organizations were planning to migrate to SD-WAN, and many were making new investments in this area. SD-WAN applications accelerated as hybrid operating models became clear and implemented, enabling organizations to regain control over complex network traffic.

2022 is heading to be a year when the pandemic has lost its effect to a large extent, and the new normal is becoming more and more evident. SD-WAN technology solves the network problems brought by the pandemic and is shaped by four trends this year. We will examine these trends today: SD-WAN as a service, secure remote access, artificial intelligence, and wireless wide area networks.

SD-WAN as a Service

Software-defined wide area networks as a service with connectivity, orchestration, and inter-manageability capabilities deliver organizations agility, scalability, performance, and a more reasonable cost of ownership. SD-WAN as a service has an important place in addition to network services. It also has benefits such as optimized cloud connectivity, increased security, and application optimization.

While managed SD-WAN deployments accounted for less than 8 percent of all deployments in 2017, IT departments have increasingly turned to cloud and outsourcing for wide-area networking over the past three years. By 2020, managed SD-WAN deployments accounted for half of all deployments.

Secure remote access

The pandemic has shown us that remote access technology requires a shift from location-based or endpoint to identity-based methodology. The need for remote team members to access all applications and data from any network, location, or device has become more tangible. However, critical questions such as who the remote users are, what applications they use, and what they do with sensitive data cannot be left to chance. This has accelerated the transition to SD-WAN.

SD-WAN is a cloud-based wide area network architecture designed to connect branches to data centers and multi-cloud environments. With the spread of hybrid work, employees’ homes have turned into branches, and remote access has been maintained securely over SD-WAN.

SD-WAN provides much faster access to cloud-based services by prioritizing remote access for mission-critical and latency-sensitive applications. Encryption, VPNs, firewalls, and cloud-based security integrations ensure all connections remain secure. IT administrators can manage the network through central management tools. SD-WAN technology eliminates many of the performance and security challenges both home workers and IT departments face.

AI powered SD-WAN

Artificial intelligence has been used to facilitate network management for some time and is beginning to increase its influence in SD-WAN solutions. AI promises better policy definitions, troubleshooting assistance, smarter performance, and security monitoring functions, as well as optimizing traffic path selection for SD-WAN.

Artificial intelligence and automation enable us to better leverage the extensive information and data already created by SD-WAN systems. For example, SD-WAN attack protection reduces false alarms thanks to cloud-based artificial intelligence. As SD-WAN technology evolves to provide more granular data and network insights, AI can leverage aggregated experiences across multiple businesses to better understand the trends and implications of this data over time. From this perspective, SD-WAN represents the first step towards the true transition to next-generation networks.

WWAN

The role of wireless wide area networks (WWAN) in SD-WAN connections is increasing. Advances in wireless wide-area networking, particularly 5G, promise a significant leap forward for software-defined or SD-WAN. Where WWAN is not the only connection format, SD-WAN provides policy-based control over how the WWAN service is used. Where only WWAN is present, SD-WAN can balance traffic between multiple providers, move traffic from an overloaded service to a less loaded service, and perform traffic conditioning to improve service quality. With the proliferation of 5G networks, integrating wireless wide area networks with SD-WAN will also become easier.

Cisco SD-WAN

Aiming to be the solution partner that best defines and implements the digital transformation needs of each of its customers, Cisco SD-WAN solutions offered by Netas reduce operating costs and improve resource utilization for multi-region distributions.

Network administrators use bandwidth more efficiently and achieve high performance for critical applications without compromising security and privacy with Cisco SD-WAN solutions. Simplifying tough tasks like routing, threat protection, and wide area network management makes IT’s job easier.

Cisco SD-WAN solutions are preferred by 70 percent of Fortune 100 companies. These solutions provide 94 percent less unplanned downtime, 48 percent faster application performance, 65 percent lower connection costs, 59 percent faster configuration implementation, 38 percent lower transactions cost, and 33 percent more efficient WAN management.