SD-WAN is the initial building block of WAN transformation and the first step in overcoming MPLS cost and agility constraints. SD-WAN appliances are placed at the WAN edge, and are optimized to manage more WAN links to maximize bandwidth and overcoming last-mile brownouts and blackouts. Nevertheless, as a point solution, SD-WAN alone can’t address essential digital business needs such as global connectivity, network optimization, WAN and Internet security, cloud acceleration, and mobile access.
SD-WAN as a Service extends the core capabilities of traditional SD-WAN. It converges the WAN edge, a global backbone and a full network security stack into a unified cloud-native platform. Known as SASE (or the Secure Access Service Edge) it is built to optimally connect and secure all enterprise resources; physical locations, cloud datacenters, and the mobile workforce. By integrating SD-WAN into SASE, enterprises can gradually transform their WAN to address the full WAN transformation journey, without deploying multiple point solutions.