The Impact of SD-WAN on Remote Workers and Branch Offices
COVID-19 forced millions of organisations to adopt the remote work culture. Numerous organisations saw a major shift in how they worked; while some did well, most others faced challenges with remote working. Poor broadband connections and performance issues due to multiple device connections were a few major challenges that most remote workers faced. Connecting workforces from different geographical locations was another huge problem faced by many multinational companies.
Whatever challenges the pandemic threw at the IT resources, most organisations handled it well. Though most enterprises weren’t equipped in advance, they responded to the challenges fully. The introduction of SD-WAN was a boon to organisations struggling with connectivity issues. Most enterprises did not hesitate to adopt and try the new features offered by SD-WAN. The following functionalities of SD-WAN helped improve the productivity and efficiency of remote workers:
1) Reduced Cloud Friction
As a matter of fact, most organisations are adopting cloud-based applications. While Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) transports data through data centres, SD-WAN helps prioritise access to cloud-based applications from any location. Hence, instead of travelling through a series of routers to access certain information or transport data, you can access cloud apps more quickly and straightforwardly. This way, the performance of the users is improved.
2) Prioritising Traffic
SD-WAN helps avoid circuits that are having issues with performance. SD-WAN helps prioritise traffic on the application layer, whereas MPLS cannot offer the same functionality for enhancing the performance of cloud-based applications.
3) Advanced security
Another great functionality SD-WAN offers is the deliverance of secure and encrypted tunnelling. Without the installation of too many hardware devices, security can be obtained. So, a person working remotely will get to enjoy the same protection that a person would experience from their main head office.
4) Increase in visibility
SD-WAN offers complete network insight. It provides visibility into devices, sites, connections, latency, and all kinds of performance issues and also helps identify what traffic is being sent to which place, etc. This complete insight helps identify problems and rectify them accordingly to enhance performance.
5) Separation of Home traffic and Work Traffic
For workers working remotely from the house, it becomes mandatory to differentiate between home and work traffic. SD-WAN co-exists with the already available home broadband and helps separate home traffic from work traffic.
6) Reduces Latency
Latency is the overall time taken for data to travel across the network and reach the designated destination. High latency would mean poor communication, disruption in work and ultimately, the end-user wouldn’t receive the desired experience. With the introduction of SD-WAN, traffic can be steered away from latency problems since it helps detect the best traffic routes. Your packet of data is after that sent through these approved routes.
When it comes to latency, jitter and packet loss, SD-WAN works very efficiently by seeing through the entire network and identifying a better course of action.
The pandemic pushed most organisations to endure the high cost and complex work atmosphere. Another considerable challenge faced by remote workers was the security of data being transferred. Data encryption, remote access to critical information, and easy maintenance were the need of the hour. This urgent requirement was met with the help of SD-WAN. Most importantly, unlike traditional network connections, SD-WAN helped reduce cloud workloads without increasing operational costs.
SD-WAN will keep improving, and owing to the popularity it is receiving; vendors will keep on improving its functionality. If you want to incorporate SD-WAN into your work infrastructure, connect with professionals who will help you understand the functionalities of SD-WAN better and help deploy the network architecture with ease. Whether your business will benefit from SD-WAN depends greatly on your business and work requirements. Professional SD-WAN vendors and providers will understand the condition first and help you choose the proper functionality based on your company’s structure and needs.
SMOAD SD-WAN solutions can be customised to meet your organisation’s demands.
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