SD-WAN – What you need to know (Including Benefits)
What is a SD-WAN
A SD-WAN connect users to their devices, from any device from any location at any time, no matter where their apps are stored.
Whereas WAN was hosted in an enterprise data-centre, however through the growth of cloud services such as AWS, Google Cloud, DropBox, Salesforce and others it added time delay, reduced quality whilst also using lease line bandwidth availability which increases spend and reduces efficiency.
With the increased use of the aforementioned cloud based solutions it makes more sense to use the internet to access apps which are hosted there. This drove a more intelligent software defined solution. A SD-WAN does not route traffic on addresses but rather uses technology to divert traffic based on the business requirements for the specific applications. The control function has been centralised, this can then be used across multiple SD-WANs globally. There is no limit to this and as many SD-WANs can be combined for complete company wide security protection as well as more consistent, predictable application performance. Because this is done through software, the process of adding new devices, and updating procedures is quick and easy.
Benefits of SD-WAN
App Compatibility – on average 70% of apps are hosted on the cloud. Using a SD-WAN gives greater optimisation and security for the majority of your work.
Enhanced Agility – you can run traffic through multiple bandwidths for example 4G, MPLS, and Broadband. This means that the optimised service is always provided as multiple bands can be used at once and the best service can always be achieved.
Reduces IT Technician Requirements – if one of the bandwidths go down, traffic can be immediately re-routed through one of the others without performance being affected. Maintaining business standard and performance but also reducing the requirement for IT technicians to fix issues.
Increased Speed – by using the internet for bandwidth this gives you better performance than traditional means.
Quicker Onboarding Process – leverage internet services new location can be brought online much quicker by utilising the remote sharing of information and not relying on physically being in the location.
Zero Touch Provisioning – this means that a new location can be automated through to be brough online without mistake rapidly, and through utilising broadband this process can occur in a few days instead of the traditional weeks.
Enhanced Security – end to end segmentation breaks down bandwidth to fully assess traffic to ensure that you will not be put at risk. Security delivered in the cloud is easier to keep up to date and protect against the most current threats.
Lowers WAN Cost – when SD-WAN was first introduced the lower cost broadband, was the greatest asset. However, whilst this is still the case, many CISOs see greater benefits in the productivity and security offered by a SD-WAN, which combined with the opex costs being reduced by 40% brings a great amount of efficiency for their company.
Enables Digital Transformation – making the business cloud ready bringing many other benefits read our article on the Benefits of Digital Transformation here.
Why use a Fortinet for your SD-WAN
At DES we recommend using Fortinet for your SD-WAN requirements.
Within every Fortigate firewall is a SD-WAN, thus bringing all the aforementioned benefits of a SD-WAN with the security of a Fortinet product.
Fortinet are the trusted partner to high risk industries, with 70% of the FTSE 100 companies trusting their cyber security with the Fortinet suite.
Simplified WAN architecture bringing the WAN within the Fortigate firewall and linking with other Fortinet products such as Fortimanager this reduces footprint and power usage. By having these centrally orchestrated this simplifies the WAN management and enforces a regular quality of service and security across all devices. Reduce risk and expense.
Fortigate Next Generation Firewall
The Fortigate Next Generation Firewall provides high-performance, consolidated security for end-to-end protection across the entire network. Through awareness of applications, users, and content within network traffic, FortiGate NGFWs offer comprehensive protection against known and unknown threats for example ransomware, malicious botnets, zero-day, and encrypted malware. They offer scalable throughput of advanced security services, flexible network interfaces, and top performance delivered by Fortinet’s powerful security processors. The market-leading FortiOS operating system ensures superior price per performance and security efficacy.
With wired and wireless network support, single-pane-of-glass management, and end-to-end visibility, FortiGate firewalls also helps minimise deployment complexity and save IT resources.
Included FortiGuard services offer full-featured network firewall, application control, intrusion prevention, sandboxing, anti-malware, and web filtering. FortiGate firewalls are optimized for the enterprise edge, cloud, and data center, as well as distributed and remote locations. FortiGate NGFWs can also be deployed in internal network segments to increase threat visibility and enhance breach discovery and mitigation to stop the uncontrolled spread of threats within the network.