Today’s businesses have vastly different internet connectivity requirements than those from even just a few years ago. In global markets, finding a way to achieve a safe, reliable network connection has become critical for any business looking to stay relevant, competitive, and secure. But current options leave much to be desired.
MPLS networks: pros and cons
MPLS is the defacto choice for most enterprises, and for a good reason. MPLS offers guaranteed availability and optimized application performance, as well as high levels of latency and stability. MPLS connections also offer high uptimes – around 99.99%, an extremely important consideration when it comes to business applications. This is invaluable, assuming you’re willing to pay the high price for the bandwidth that these types of apps consume – MPLS is extremely expensive.
If your company runs a host of mission-critical, real-time apps (like video conferencing, VoIP) where packet loss, latency, and jitter are an issue, MPLS might be a viable option.
Out-of-control network expenses become an issue when bandwidth-hogging content results in a high costs that is budget-prohibitive for many businesses.
Slow Setup and Implementation
Another major concern of MPLS is the length of time it takes to get systems up-and-running. A typical MPLS network install can take months to order, install, and implement. This results in costly delays that thwart company expansion and stifle productivity in high-growth operations. In the world where agility is a competitive advantage, slow deployments that drag on for months become unacceptable.
Do you identify with these MPLS Concerns for Business?
- Uncontrolled Costs
- Slow Implementation
SD-WAN – Agility is the driving force
SD-WAN can augment MPLS connections with public Internet, allowing enterprises to lower WAN costs significantly. By utilizing the power of SD-WAN, businesses can improve agility and bring down costs.
As businesses increasingly embrace the cloud and need to compete more effectively in the dynamic markets, the demand for network agility, including reduced deployment and configuration times, drives SD-WAN adoption.
SD-WAN can solve many problems when it comes to connectivity, but not all SD-WAN solutions are created equal. The arrival of cloud-enabled SD-WAN has dramatically changed the playing field. Benefits of cloud-enabled SD-WAN include:
- Cloud/virtual gateways improve the reliability and performance of cloud apps.
- Multi-circuit/ISP load-balancing.
- Improved performance of all WAN apps.
- Real-time traffic shaping.
- Improved disaster response with a reliable connectivity backup.
- Nearest-network point of presence (POP) connection to the network provider’s private fiber-optic backbone.
- The private backbone guarantees low levels of latency, jitter, and packet loss along with improved performance of all network traffic, especially for real-time apps that were traditionally best run on MPLS networks.
- Backbones are directly connected with major cloud application providers like AWS and Office 365, which dramatically improves reliability and usability.
In addition to improving network connectivity and performance, cloud-enabled SD-WAN can help organizations reduce or eliminate MPLS appliance sprawl, control skyrocketing bandwidth costs, and benefit from all the security, reliability, and scalability that the cloud has to offer.
“. . . some Cloud-enabled SD-WAN providers have direct connections to the major cloud service providers. This means once your traffic hits your SD-WAN provider’s nearest cloud gateway, you connect directly to your cloud provider (as opposed to having to continue traversing the public Internet to reach them). This means less latency, packet loss and jitter… which equates to a better user experience with your company’s cloud applications.” IDG/Network World Contributor Mike Smith.
Even companies running real-time apps which are typically vulnerable to the jitter, packet loss, and latency that comes with doing business over the public internet will benefit from cloud-enabled SD-WAN.
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