SD-WAN
Eliminate Security Risks, Increase Efficiency, and Lower Costs
Does your network get backed up easily because of slow connections? With an SD-WAN from Upfront Computer Solutions, you never have to worry about network traffic.
What Is an SD-WAN?
A software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) is a type of wide-area network (WAN) that incorporates low-cost broadband connections with the traditional features of WANs.
Upfront Computer Solutions’s SD-WAN as a service lowers the costs of WANs for your business because it runs on 4G LTE and broadband internet.
WAN Explained
A WAN is a connection that all of your local area networks (LANs) have access to. Whether your offices are five miles apart or thousands of miles apart, they can use a WAN as a central cloud network.
WANs typically employ multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) as their central networking technology. MPLS handles data transfer failure with backup links, while an SD-WAN handles these failures with consistent traffic control. While MPLS is an effective way to connect to a WAN, it’s more expensive than using 4G LTE or broadband internet to transfer information across a WAN.
WANs and SD-WANs differ in two ways:
- WANs use MPLS to transfer data; an SD-WAN uses 4G LTE and broadband internet
- An SD-WAN is less expensive
How Does an SD-WAN Work?
Upfront Computer Solutions implements SD-WANs with these simple steps:
- First, your hardware and software must support SD-WANs.
- If they’re unable to support SD-WANs, Upfront Computer Solutions will install software that does support them.
- VPN tunnels are installed.
- Your SD-WAN is checked for quality by our IT experts.
- The SD-WAN goes through a vulnerability scan to make sure it’s secure.
- The SD-WAN is tested on a small group in your company to ensure it’s working properly.
- Once the SD-WAN is deployed successfully in the test group, it’s deployed for all the branches of your business.
Once the network is up and running, you experience all the benefits SD-WANs offer.
What Are the Benefits of SD-WANs?
Upfront Computer Solutions’s SD-WAN is the ideal solution for managing and monitoring your data. Here are the benefits our SD-WAN brings to your company:
Improves User Experience
SD-WAN solutions are an efficient way to route traffic. SD-WAN technology moves information through different connections. If data sent from your branch to another branch is low priority, it’s sent through a slower connection, like MPLS. If data is high priority, it’s sent through a faster connection, like LTE.
Because data takes multiple routes in SD-WANs, there’s little to no traffic in the network. With WANs that solely use MPLS, all information must travel through the same connection. High-priority data doesn’t have its own tunnel like it does with SD-WANs.
Users get frustrated when their connection to their other branches is slow. Our SD-WAN offers a more user-friendly experience, keeping data moving quickly and allowing more work to get done.
Increased Cost Efficiency
On top of MPLS-based WANs being significantly slower than broadband-based SD-WANs, they’re also more expensive. MPLS requires individual Wi-Fi routers, switches, and servers that your business has to pay for. These supplies get expensive fast, especially for large businesses.
Upfront Computer Solutions’s SD-WANs don’t require the same moving pieces that a typical WAN does because everything is cloud-based. LTE and broadbands are much cheaper than the required elements of WANs that use MPLS.
Cloud-Based Connection Types
When your business updates security software or installs new applications, a typical WAN depends on individual routers to send that data. Any new security policies, software updates, or business-related information could take days or even weeks to transfer to other branches.
With our SD-WAN, all branches of your business get on the same page in seconds. That’s because this network uses cloud-based connections like broadband internet and 4G LTE to transfer data in real time.
The cloud acts as a centralized controller for all data in an SD-WAN, making information easily accessible for all branches.
The speed of an SD-WAN makes updating policies across all branches much faster because all of the information travels in the same cloud that each branch has access to. Because SD-WANs use 4G LTE, a wireless connection, and broadband internet (internet that exists in your physical router), you can transfer data even when your Wi-Fi is down.
MPLS—which typical WANs use to send data—is managed by an outsourced provider, so any problems or unauthorized actions are dealt with by a third party. This creates traffic in the WAN, as third-party providers may have other WAN-related problems to solve for other clients.
MPLS also needs Wi-Fi to run, so if your Wi-Fi is down, the WAN can’t function properly.
Increased Security for Network Infrastructure
Unlike a traditional WAN, an SD-WAN creates individually encrypted tunnels for each piece of data that’s transferred through it. If you need to send updated security policies or new websites to another branch in your company, that information will be sent through an encrypted tunnel. These tunnels ensure the safety of the information by lowering the likelihood that the information is lost or stolen on its way to the other branch.
Our SD-WAN also includes virtual private networks (VPNs), which are used to privately surf the internet. When you send data from one branch office to another, the SD-WAN uses a VPN on both ends of the delivery to ensure the transfer is private and safe from unauthorized users.
Without the extra security measures provided by our SD-WAN, your data could be at risk when traveling through a WAN, since MPLSs aren’t used with a private network.
Create an IT Policy With Upfront Computer Solutions
Are you getting all the possible benefits of an SD-WAN? Upgrade your IT policies with Upfront Computer Solutions to ensure your SD-WAN is as efficient as possible.
Choose Upfront Computer Solutions as Your SD-WAN Provider
With Upfront Computer Solutions as your SD-WAN provider, your data is always safe while traveling through encrypted tunnels, and our IT technicians will install the network for you. Whether you have a local, national, or worldwide business, SD-WANs can support any number of branches no matter the distance between them.
Our SD-WAN offers you a low-cost, high-speed, and user-friendly network that’s perfect for your business.