Software-defined wide area network technology (SD-WAN) is a powerful tool for businesses that rely on the Internet to operate. It is especially beneficial for multi-location businesses. Of course, every company’s needs are a little different. So, is SD-WAN right for your business?
Read on to learn more about its benefits and uses for multi-location businesses.
What Is SD-WAN?
A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that covers a large geographical area. Unlike a local area network (LAN), a WAN can connect devices and networks to the Internet and cloud-based service providers. Its primary purpose in the business world is to connect an organization’s locations together so that they can work securely and efficiently.
Software-defined wide area networks use software to simplify the delivery of the WAN. It is an answer to the problems of two prior technologies: traditional WANs and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). WANs spread over large areas tend to suffer from connection quality issues. MPLS addresses this but is expensive and slow to deploy.
SD-WAN offers many technical advantages over traditional WANs without all the logistical drawbacks of MPLS. Unlike a conventional WAN which relies on a hardware network, SD-WAN, such as the service offered by GeoLinks, can be managed virtually.
What Are the Benefits of SD-WAN for a Multi-Location Business?
Multi-location businesses can utilize SD-WAN to connect their headquarters with outside branches. This may be an organization with people working in offices all over the globe or it may be a retailer with a few locations around a city. Unlike MPLS which requires the use of a singular telecom across every location, SD-WAN is carrier agnostic allowing you to customize your bandwidth per location.
A business in Los Angeles with satellite locations in San Bernardino and San Diego, for example, may need to run applications that work efficiently between all three sites. SD-WAN would enable them to do so, simply and cost-effectively. If the team wanted to open another location in Riverside, SD-WAN would make connecting the new office seamless.
These are some of the reasons to choose SD-WAN to connect your business locations:
- Cost Savings: Relative to other modern WAN options such as MPLS, SD-WAN is less costly to deploy and to maintain.
- Efficient Routing: More traditional technologies such as MPLS are not routed based on application demand. SD-WAN, conversely, uses optimized path routing to ensure prioritized applications have the best possible performance.
- Fast Deployment: SD-WAN is software-based and delivered through the cloud. Requiring just an edge device installed on site, setting it up is both fast and cost-effective. This makes it very simple to quickly connect another branch or remote office.
- More Stable Internet: Businesses that rely on the Internet to operate can benefit from SD-WAN as it can seamlessly combine multiple Internet connections. Capable of jitter buffering, forward error packet correction, dynamic link steering, and issuing automatic failover to a backup connection in the event one connection fails, SD-WAN ensures an organization has true business continuity. For certain businesses, this can make a critical difference.
- Centralized Monitoring: SD-WAN offers multi-location businesses functionality to monitor the network in real-time from anywhere. So, your headquarters can keep an eye on all network activity and remotely address any issues. This significantly simplifies network maintenance when compared to a hardware-based solution.
Which Multi-Location Businesses Benefit From SD-WAN?
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Multi-location car dealerships
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Banks with multiple branches
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Hotel and restaurant chains
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Marketing and Ad Agencies with offices spread nationally
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Schools, Hospitals, Libraries and other Municipalities
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Multi-location retailers
Basically, any business with multiples branches or offices can benefit from SD-WAN. It is especially helpful for organizations that run cloud services or wish to house and mitigate all IT operations within a single hub.
Most businesses today rely heavily on the Internet. Having automatic failover to back-up connections safeguards your business from experiencing any perceived outages. Therefore, if lost productivity from a dropped Internet connection would substantially harm your business, SD-WAN may be for you.
Ultimately, SD-WAN is the best solution for fast-growing California-based businesses looking to establish a cost-effective, scalable, and efficient wide area network.
Interest in learning more about GeoLinks’ SD-WAN offering? Talk to a GeoLinks team member today!
