The concept of a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is not new. The first SD-WAN solutions emerged almost a decade ago to address a fundamental shift in the topology of the wide area network brought about by the adoption of cloud technology. In its simplest form the traditional operates as a hub and spoke, connecting each branch location to the head office where systems and data are held.
The emergence of cloud means that many of the business-critical applications are no longer on-premise at head office, but reside in a mixture of public and private cloud environments and as such, back-hauling all network traffic to the head-office and then forwarding it on to the relevant cloud is no longer efficient.
This Best Practice Guide explains how SD-WAN addresses a number of common challenges faced by organisations today and provides a pragmatic perspective on what options are available to embrace this technology.
