As a number of applications move towards the cloud there is a growing awareness that traditional WANs were never designed for an internet-based environment, a problem that SD-WAN solves. Low cost, increased agility, quick online time, enhanced security and better network productivity are just a number of the advantages SD-WAN has to offer. Here is a list of Capacity’s five favourite solutions in the SD-WAN space.
Global SD-WAN
Compared to traditional MPLS, Aryaka’s Global SD-WAN solution offers faster cloud/SaaS connectivity and a lower total cost of ownership. In addition, the solution delivers: faster performance for mission and business critical applications - hosted on-premises or in the cloud, improved performance for cloud-based VoIP services, it can be deployed in 8-48 hours and comes with a guaranteed network uptime and quality of service. As a fully managed offering Aryaka says that its solution eliminates management hassles with a single vendor solution and reportedly saves companies up to 56% in costs. Versus a traditional MPLS connection, Aryaka’s Global SD-WAN performs at a 0.306 second application response time in comparison to the 3.97 seconds it takes over MPLS.
Virtualised Network Services
The Virtualised Network Services (VNS) solution offered by Nuage Networks allows remote locations to be seamlessly connected with the data centre —without the need for expensive and cumbersome proprietary hardware. The offering comprises of three components. The first being the Vitualised Services Directory (VSD), this is the centralised policy engine, that defines, deploys and enforces the overall Nuage Networks VNS solution’s capability and delivers advanced service capabilities via a Network Functions Store. The second is the Virtualised Services Controller (VSC) that programs the customer premises equipment with the network overlay paths to form the topology for Nuage Networks VNS. And lastly there’s the Network Services Gateway (NSG) which provides service demarcation and network functionality at the branch, based on the x86 COTS hardware.
Viptela SD-WAN
Since acquiring Viptela for $610 million in August 2017, Cisco has realigned its strategic direction away from its in-house-developed IWAN offerings in favour of the Viptela offering. Viptela says that its SD-WAN solution is the most deployed SD-WAN solution among the Fortune 1000 Enterprises. The solution builds an overlay fabric which is carrier agnostic and transport agnostic, and as such customers get a consistent WAN built on MPLS, Broadband, 4G/LTE or VSAT to name a few. As for security Viptela’s SD-WAN is built on a zero-trust model. This means that all components within the solution mutually authenticate each other and all of the edge devices are authorised before they are allowed on the network. The solution is cloud delivered and has been designed with open architecture in mind as customers have the flexibility of management interfaces.
Talari – SD-WAN solution
Talari’s SD-WAN solution creates a smart and responsive network, which adapts in real time to bandwidth demand and actual network conditions. As a result critical applications take priority and take the best quality path through the network ensuring uptime. Talari’s solution works across all MPLS, hybrid WAN, all Internet links - backed up with wireless or extended to the cloud, guaranteeing continuous availability and predictable performance. In addition, the solution supports enterprise data centers, remote offices and cloud services with a new model in which packets are routed at predetermined times, based on the bandwidth suitability of the packet’s needs. As for Hybrid WAN, with Talari’s solution all WAN locations have access to the full aggregated amount of bandwidth. And because of the policies-based prioritisation protocol, quality sensitive applications such as VoIP get the highest priority which in turn ensures quality of experience.
Silver Peak SD-WAN
According to Silver Peak ‘not all SD-WANs are created equal’ but the company says building it with Silver Peak has a unique set of benefits. The first is lower WAN operational expenditure and capital expenditure – using the Silver Peak SD-WAN solution you can now augment or replace MPLS connections with broadband internet services to connect users to applications and lower WAN costs by approximately 90%. It also features 256-bit encrypted tunnels, edge-to-edge between any sites in the SD-WAN, a component Silver Peak says it offers the ‘security of a VPN’ and offers ‘unrivalled’ flexibility and deployment options that is non-disruptively interoperable with most existing technologies using service chaining multiple layer 4 through 7 devices or enabling a “migrate at your own pace” approach to adoption.
