The Road to Success: SD-WAN for Road Warriors in the Modern Era

Organisations are scaling their operations across boundaries, thanks to reliable and secure networks. Latency-sensitive applications, such as video conferencing, constantly put pressure on an organisation’s IT resources. Managing pressure is a significant challenge, as remote workers and road warriors rely on cellular connections for collaboration and communication to access real-time data. With cellular links, mobile workers can disconnect from the corporate network. However, SD-WAN technology has given a new dimension to connecting with mobile workers. Let’s explore how.

SD-WAN adds a software layer on top of the multiple data transport options. Now organisations can add cellular, fibre internet, satellite and broadband as per their business needs. The software will intelligently roué data across the global and hybrid WAN depending on the application needs and network environment. Your organisation can benefit from SD-WAN as it offers cellular services to support both remote and road warriors. Moreover, you can use cellular for backup during unforeseen interruptions. The cellular connection can be used for temporary setups like kiosks, weddings, seminars or other events, where broadband or fibre connection is not sustainable.

SD-WAN offers true mobility
Organisations are moving towards SD-WAN because of its simplicity, performance, security, and affordability. SD-WAN offers greater visibility into a distributed enterprise’s network traffic. Adding cellular into your SD-WAN setup can optimise WAN connectivity for road warriors. It is not always possible for mobile users to connect to corporate WAN. Traditional techniques like VPN are inefficient, particularly when using cloud applications and services.

Direct connections to the internet using cellular can simplify access and reduce latency, but it can add to security risks and administrative issues. The good news is that SD-WAN can mitigate these drawbacks through centralised authentication and policy enforcement for mobile connections. It also promotes the integration of layered security controls, offering end-to-end encryption. Other advantages of using SD-WAN for cellular connections include WAN optimisation, application prioritisation and traffic shaping. It improves performance and offers bandwidth control depending on your business needs.

Using cellular for backup or temporary connection is simple, as it is added to the SD-WAN router, appliances, and gateways. For true mobile connectivity, a high-speed and robust network card supporting multiple devices is required. Only top-notch mobile SD-WAN solutions can integrate cellular access and onboard security in a portable, play-and-plug unit.

SD-WAN comes with an option to leverage multiple network connections, such as MPLS, LTE/5G, broadband, and fibre. Remote workers must aggregate multiple connections to ensure uninterrupted access. Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) is also a reliable functionality of SD-WAN that enables rapid deployment of new devices using devices or to sites and can be remotely and automatically configured.

ZTP is suitable for remote workers as it can simplify your home-office network setup using automated configuration, thereby reducing complexity and decreasing stress on your home network.

SD-WAN offers bandwidth optimisation with multiple network links for continuous connectivity. It optimises bandwidth utilisation. The process is about intelligently routing traffic across communication links depending on application needs and network conditions. The network telemetry provides details of the link’s health, performance, and critical applications needed to receive bandwidth. SD-WAN moves traffic over the most suitable link to improve performance and enhance user experience.

Enhancing security for road warriors
SD-WAN adds security features like firewalls and an Intrusion Prevention System to improve the protection of road warriors. In places where it is not possible to install dedicated machines to secure the network, SD-WAN can help. The added security layer gives road warriors data confidentiality and integrity from breaches. It also prevents downtime due to breaches. With single-pane SD-WAN solutions, you can bid goodbye to a complex architecture, reduce configuration time for network administrators and mitigate threats.

Improve performance and reliability for road warriors.

• Application-aware routing allows network administrators to optimise traffic prioritisation using an SD-WAN controller.
• Failover and redundancy for leveraging multiple network links to prevent interruptions due to failure.
• Centralised management for simplified network process, remote deployment and configuration, troubleshooting and monitoring.
• Policy-based control for implementation of security policies, QoS and deployment to remote sites for consistent policy enforcement irrespective of location.

SMOAD offers SD-WAN for road warriors, enabling mobile users and remote partners to access centralised business applications while on the go without compromising on security. The SMOAD soft edge in the system enables an SD-WAN tunnel for secure access to business apps from anywhere. Internet-bound traffic can be offloaded via local internet directly, offering faster access and reduced latency.

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