Software-defined WAN is a feature-rich technology that can integrate network, security, reporting, and management into one platform. Most vendor marketing activities present SD-WAN as a self-managed, do-it-yourself technology, but potential users should be aware of the inherent challenges and deployment risk factors of SD-WAN.
Security challenge
The first challenge associated with SD-WAN is security. The ability to deploy hardware and virtual instances through access to security policies sounds attractive, but it is very risky.
The IT team has been deploying IPsec VPN on the Internet for many years, so they are familiar with the simple VPN security that comes with SD-WAN . However, one of the main advantages of SD-WAN is its fine-grained security strategy. This is where the IT team should be cautious. As companies transition to cloud networks, company data shifts from data center locations, and mobile employees grow, traditional edge security is changing. The edge is no longer the periphery.
The challenge for SD-WAN is to ensure that each security function is properly deployed and configured according to the specific requirements of each business. For example, distributed denial of service protection can be better configured as a cloud-based feature because it prevents attacks by redirecting traffic to avoid interruptions.
Another example is the integrated unified threat management (UTM), which is a key part of the SD-WAN decision-making process. IT teams face the severe challenge of deploying services based on business needs, so make sure your team has the expertise to understand and deliver the correct security strategy to ensure that it deploys UTM correctly and without risk.
The challenge of network connection selection
One of the core tenets of SD-WAN is to reduce the total cost of ownership. Although reducing costs may seem simple at first glance, SD-WAN design and network connectivity issues pose a huge risk.
IT procurement teams sometimes misunderstand the value proposition of SD-WAN. For any connection, please pay attention to basic network performance factors such as delay, jitter, and support under outage conditions. Where costs are reduced, IT departments should ask questions about the expertise of support staff and service level agreements (SLAs).
Network resilience also plays an important role in design, because SD-WAN vendors focus on SD-WAN technology rather than basic connectivity. I have seen many designs, including dual suppliers to maximize uptime, but these suppliers are not different from each other, which leads to common ground in the network infrastructure. Although IT teams can use SD-WAN to save costs, they should pay attention to design instead of relying on vendor marketing to determine network uptime. This will help the team avoid interruptions that may ultimately increase business costs.
Multinational companies face another SD-WAN challenge that domestic companies do not have: it is always impossible to obtain an Internet service provider (ISP) connection from a single backbone provider. Potential problems include delays in traffic from ISP to ISP and troubleshooting issues between service providers. Where possible, the IT team needs to investigate which vendors are best for their specific location before selecting potential SD-WAN vendors.
Deployment challenges
Another challenge of SD-WAN is the expertise required for deployment. Some suppliers' products are based on a single glass DIY installation and support method. However, the customer is still responsible for configuring the functions correctly and paying careful attention to security policies and traffic routing.
QoS challenges
The industry has thoroughly discussed the topic of MPLS and SD-WAN, but quality of service (QoS) is still an important topic to consider. Using a typical MPLS service provider product, end-to-end QoS can be used in six settings to assign applications to service level categories.
SD-WAN on the Internet does not provide end-to-end priority, but can provide traffic processing, path selection and enhanced packet loss detection functions. It is important to understand that the laws of physics cannot be broken, so traffic moving from one location to another will be affected by network delays. Whether it is debating MPLS or Internet-based SD-WAN, the analysis of the delay and jitter SLA between the endpoints will determine whether the connection (not the technology) meets the purpose.
The challenge of BYOD
The final challenge of SD-WAN is BYOD. One of the advantages of cloud-based applications is the freedom they provide. Users can use their own devices to work and seamlessly access public cloud network connections between personal and office devices. The question facing the IT team is whether to use security policies to prohibit the use of these devices or to use the benefits of cloud access from anywhere.
Some statistics indicate that most employees use five devices at any time. Each device can access any cloud application through an app or browser, prompting users to request seamless access throughout the working day.
There is no quick way to solve the BYOD challenge. The team should treat and evaluate traffic like any other data traversing the WAN. Traffic analysis will require detailed reports to classify traffic based on acceptable risks for your business. The team can deploy other technologies, including content filtering and intrusion detection, to protect the entire network. The key is visibility into network traffic, because statistical data allows the IT team to make the right strategic decisions when deploying SD-WAN for BYOD.
Follow established best practices
With the advent of SD-WAN technology, a large number of available functions means that companies must realize that they choose the best enterprise network solution provider-Vecloud to deploy the best configuration.