Requirements For SD-WAN Success

By Kayla Zbinden, Granite Telecommunications and Karen Falcone, Juniper Networks

As company needs continue to evolve, there has been a shift in what is expected from an SD-WAN solution. Today’s businesses depend on connectivity as their foundation. The growth of cloud usage in the current era of digital transformation, combined with the continued support for remote or hybrid working environments, has cemented the role that connectivity plays in success.

With this in mind, it is clear that the requirements for an SD-WAN solution are evolving as well. MSPs are being relied upon more and more to understand these requirements and deliver solutions that give businesses what they need to meet today’s demands and set up tomorrow’s successful growth.

Improving The User Experience

The needs of business users - and how they define success - have changed forever. The focus of enterprise technology around the cloud means that connectivity is king. End users demand constant access to their applications and data, no matter when or from where they log on. Speed has become a forgotten measurement of the past; today’s employees care about whether they have strongly connected access. And they remember when they don’t.

To support these needs, providers will need to understand the traffic that traverses the WAN, and how it’s being used, to prioritize and manage it based on supporting that always-on, always-connected experience. Service providers need to deliver on that promise, or they’ll find that key customers are looking to replace them with someone who can.

Converging Solutions

Cloud computing and SD-WAN are becoming more closely tied together every day. The increase in cloud-based application usage and storage can often quickly erode WAN performance, leading customers to look for other vendors and solutions. To be successful, MSPs need to be able to offer SD-WAN solutions that are built to handle the demands of cloud computing - fast, scalable, and adaptable to the changing needs of today’s employees.

Security is another element where convergence will drive greater results. With the growth of cloud computing, remote work, and the increased use of mobile devices, the expansion of the network edge will continue exponentially. While this is great news for employee efficiency, it makes it much more difficult to stop an attack from spreading. MSPs need a single control interface to empower teams to protect critical data, applications, and services. The mobility of today’s users makes it very difficult for the traditional method of breaking networks into smaller pieces to work. With a single interface, MSPs can make sure that only known, allowed traffic and applications have access to the assets being protected, establishing a zero-trust network.

What To Look For In An SD-WAN Solution

There are a few key elements that MSPs should be sure their SD-WAN solution includes, to ensure they can provide end users with the best network experience possible. These include:

• Tunnel-Free – MSPs need to be able to offer dynamic routing of application traffic, based on network conditions, policies, prioritizations, and availability. The tunnel-free architecture reduces bandwidth consumption, improving goodput percentage and user experience while minimizing costs and complexities.
• Intelligence – Session awareness allows routers to prioritize traffic and follow different security policies for different applications and users, helping to drive superior experiences for end users and IT professionals.
• Performance Monitoring – End-to-end network performance monitoring is necessary, to automatically optimize bandwidth utilization, and prioritize latency or jitter-sensitive traffic like voice and video. Proactive, AI-driven insights also allow IT professionals to quickly find and resolve network issues - often before the end user feels the impact. Having all of this (and more) available, on-demand, from a single, cloud-based platform brings together visibility and management to improve decision making.
• Security – Safeguard users and devices across the WAN while streamlining IT operations. Zero trust session integrity driven by secure vector routing and deny-by-default access policies are effective forms of security to provide.
• Streamlined Operations – Granular network visibility and automation simplify operations, freeing up IT staff for more strategic projects.

An AI-Driven Future

The importance of experience isn’t restricted solely to the end users of a network - those servicing an SD-WAN also deserve an improved experience. The goal is to make it easier to use and manage. Service providers should be able to quickly understand, across all of their customers, any problems on their networks. Visibility is key, but through the use of modern artificial intelligence (AI) - based tools, service providers can receive accurate information about a network issue and be offered advice or direction on how to repair it.

Part of maintaining an excellent user experience is being able to speed up time-to-repair. That means being able to identify problems - and fix them - as fast as possible. Traditionally, when there was a trouble ticket or a customer complaint, service providers would need to undertake a time-consuming, costly, and manual process of working their way down through a checklist of possible problems and solutions until the issue in question was resolved. By applying AI to the problem, teams can be directed to a problem and exact solution, limiting the amount of time a customer is affected.

AI has another dual benefit for SD-WANs - the ability to take a more proactive approach to network performance and repair. Instead of always reacting to problems, AI can help identify network issues before the end users even notice them. Users get the experience they want, and service providers can provide it more efficiently and effectively,

About The Authors

Kayla Zbinden has spent the last decade working within the telecom industry after graduating from the University of New Haven with a BS in International Justice & Security. From provisioning POTS and access services to leading efforts on VoIP and advanced technologies, she has witnessed the transformation and growth of this industry firsthand. Specializing in SD-WAN and next generation managed services, Kayla now serves as the Director of MSP Product Development for Granite Telecommunications.

Karen Falcone serves as Sr. Director of Product Marketing for AI-driven SD-WAN, and Service Provider as a Channel at Juniper Networks. Prior to this role, Karen served as Vice President of Marketing at 128 Technology, which was acquired by Juniper in 2020. Karen is enjoying her tenure at Juniper Networks and has been a member of the Unisphere Networks team acquired by Juniper in 2002. Karen holds a BA in Finance and an MBA in Marketing from Bentley University.