What are the differences between SD-WAN and SD-Access?

We are in a time where we are rebuilding IT infrastructures and architectures as software-defined. The virtualization trend has led to the emergence of today’s most important technologies and designs in all IT environments, from servers to backup, from storage to network, as software-defined. Software-defined IT solutions provide organizations with advanced management and automation capabilities on their infrastructure.

It is now possible to re-imagine everything as software-defined. In fact, this trend now even has a name: software-defined everything / SDE. The SDE trend is abstracting workloads from the underlying hardware to make IT infrastructures more flexible and agile. This enables IT administrators to deploy, provision, configure, manage and automate infrastructure using centralized cloud-based tools.

SD-Access and SD-WAN technologies are the biggest leaps in networking over the last couple of decades. These technologies solve many problems associated with traditional routing and switching approaches in local and wide area networks.

Differences between SD-WAN and SD-Access

SD-WAN and SD-Access are ways to approach software-defined networking terminology. While SD-Access is used to change the architecture of LAN networks, SD-WAN creates next-generation wide area networks with significant automation capabilities instead of MPLS/VPLS. It is useful to explore both old and new perspectives before moving your existing wide area network to SD-WAN and your local area network to SD-Access.

What is SD-WAN?

SD-WAN is an application-aware network architecture. It chooses paths according to basic parameters such as SLA, Jitter, and so on. Cisco SD-WAN solutions are developed to handle massive wide area network traffic brought by cloud computing, provide high application performance, and protect against potential data vulnerabilities. Cisco SD-WAN enables organizations to gain detailed visibility into their internet, cloud, and SaaS applications to proactively identify the root causes affecting digital experiences.

Features of SD-WAN

• Optimizes cloud and on-premises application performance and increases productivity with real-time analytics, visibility, and control capabilities.
• Protects users, devices, and applications by rapidly deploying embedded or cloud-based security.
• Simplifies SD-WAN and security deployment with centralized cloud management.
• Offers the flexibility of cloud-oriented architecture to connect any user to any application in any cloud.

What is SD-Access?

SD-Access separates user, device, and application traffic without redesigning the underlying physical network, providing visibility-based and automated end-to-end segmentation. One of the key pillars of the zero-trust security framework, SD-Access combines security and network operations. The solution increases visibility and defines access policies, securing networks and endpoints. SD-Access improves network operations by automating network configurations to enforce policies. SD-Access also automates user access policies focusing on security and user experience so that organizations can ensure that the right policies are set for any application, user, or device on the network.

Features of SD-Access

• SD-Access helps organizations enable policy-based automation from the edge to the cloud-based on purpose-driven networking principles.
• SD-Access provides network architects with tools to orchestrate key business functions such as secure segmentation, IoT integration, and guest access.
• SD-Access automates user and device policies for any wireless and wired network application.
• SD-Access enables IT to gain network access to any user, device, or application in minutes without compromising security.

Network transformation with Netaş and Cisco

Network transformation is the second pillar of Netas’ digital transformation formula. Re-imagining local and wide area networks as software-defined with Cisco’s SD-WAN and SD-Access solutions, Netas increases the agility and security of corporate networks. Software-defined modernizing networks increase the efficiency and performance of applications while showing full compatibility with the latest technologies.

Offering advantages such as 94% less unplanned downtime, 48% faster applications, and 65% lower connection costs, Cisco’s SD-WAN solutions provide organizations with many benefits, such as improved user experience, increased security, optimized cloud connectivity, and advanced management capabilities.

Cisco offers SD-WAN solutions supported by Viptela and Meraki architectures and brings software-defined networks to the ultimate sophistication with SD-Branch, DNA, ThousandEyes, and vAnalytics products.

SD-Access, offered by Cisco with its ISE, Catalyst 9000, DNA, and DNA Center solutions, enables advanced analytics for endpoint identification and profiling and improved visibility. Cisco SD-Access solution uses a comprehensive analysis of traffic flows between endpoint groups to define effective access policies. It enables these policies to be applied to network infrastructures through a user-friendly and intuitive interface.

SD-Access uniformly segments both wired and wireless networks to provide a seamless access experience to endpoints, increase compliance, and reduce business risks. It also makes it possible to change operating principles and ensure consistency across WAN and multicloud data center networks.