Required Capabilities for Effective and Secure SD-WAN: The Network Leader’s Guide

There are three main trends driving organizations to replace outdated wide area networking (WAN) infrastructures with a secure softwaredefined WAN (SD-WAN) solution.

• Digital acceleration that leverages Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) increases traffic demands, cost, and performance bottlenecks of multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) connectivity over traditional WAN infrastructures.
• The work-from-anywhere (WFA) model, meant to be a short-term fix at the start of the pandemic, has become the new normal. Organizations need to ensure remote workers have secure, reliable access to all corporate resources.
• Cybercriminals are busier than ever, and innovations in Cybercrime-as a-Service make it fast and easy for unsophisticated attackers to launch very sophisticated attacks.

When considering SD-WAN solutions, there are three key requirements to look for to address these trends. An effective solution will offer integrated capabilities needed to enable efficient management and operations, excellent quality of experience (QoE) for both end-users and IT staff, and comprehensive security.