5 Benefits of Branching Out to Secure SD-WAN
As more organisations adopt the concept of the remote workplace, the number of business-critical applications that reside in the cloud also increases. In this era of the home office, today’s businesses must adapt—whether they have distributed infrastructures of remote offices or an expanding remote workforce. For a long time, many organisations relied on virtual private networks (VPNs) to connect remote workers with company resources; some also operated via static, performance-inhibited wide area networks (WANs).
Fast forward to today—the most effective way to keep everyone connected and protected is via software-defined WAN (or SD-WAN) architectures, which enable connections between data centres and cloud services. Here, we look at five key reasons why you should consider branching out to SD-WAN, if you haven’t already.
Benefit 1: Enhanced Security and Regulatory Compliance
Many SD-WAN solutions come with some sort of built-in security, like a basic firewall and VPN functions. But, as we warned in a previous post, not all SD-WAN solutions are created equal.
While SD-WAN can reduce the risk that people will unknowingly access malicious content, many solutions still have notable security shortcomings. For example, too often, IT teams need to get creative and overlay after-the-fact security solutions across elastic and dynamic SD-WAN connections.
The better option is to select an SD-WAN solution that provides a robust and wide range of integrated security features, such as NGFW, IPS, encryption, and AV and sandboxing capabilities. With the right solution, these measures work seamlessly together to help prevent data loss, downtime, regulatory violations, and legal liabilities.
Fortinet SD-WAN is a shining example. Not only does it deliver all of the above security measures, it also offers an important Bring-Your-Own-Network functionality. This means that you can bring unmanaged network locations—such as increasingly prevalent remote and co-working spaces or housing sites—under the same streamlined security and applications policies. Traffic from these disparate locations is then encrypted for enhanced security.
Benefit 2: Improved Performance for your Applications (and Your People)
When you think about the data traffic going to and from your organisation, it’s not just about blocking unwanted applications—it’s also about leveraging SD-WAN to identify the fastest and best path forward for your critical, real-time applications.
Facilitating critical applications through reliable, high performance connections can help your team reduce packet loss and latency issues. SD-WAN can be configured to prioritise business-critical traffic and real-time services and effectively steer it over the most efficient route.
In addition to blazing-fast performance, there’s another benefit for your remote workforce: Faster speeds and better connections for all of your applications (business critical or not) has been linked to improved morale, decreased stress, and higher productivity. Thereby, investing in the right SD-WAN solution can equate to a happier team and a greater business impact overall.
Benefit 3: Simplified, Single-Pane-of-Glass Management
There’s not many business scenarios in which complexity is better than simplicity. Consider your own current cybersecurity strategy. Do you need to consult disparate interfaces? Is it difficult to gain a bird's-eye-view of your security posture, at any given minute? Is it time-consuming?
The right SD-WAN solution can reduce this complexity for more simplified management. It does so by combining security and networking into a single, cloud-based interface. This single-pane-of-glass view helps to improve control and visibility so that you can provision sites on your SD-WAN more rapidly than with traditional WAN solutions. With Managed SD-WAN from Optec, you have the option to leave it to the dedicated experts to fully manage your SD-WAN configuration and provide 24x7 monitoring. As a result, your team has more time and freedom to focus on other critical projects that support key business goals and growth.
Benefit 4: Better Cloud Usage, for Speed and Security
Another key benefit of Fortinet SD-WAN is the direct access it affords to all of your remote and hybrid workers. SD-WAN enables direct cloud access at the remote branch (say goodbye to backhauling traffic!) to securely and effectively route all cloud and branch office traffic through the data centre. Further, SD-WAN improves cloud application performance by prioritising business critical applications and enabling branches to directly communicate to the internet. This means that workers can directly access cloud applications regardless of location without burdening the core network with additional traffic to manage and secure.
Benefit 5: Reduced Costs
It’s a fact: The more we deploy business-critical applications to the cloud, the more data that travels over the wide-area network. The amount of data can grow exponentially, which can also increase your operating costs. SD-WAN interrupts this pricey trajectory and reduces the price tag. It does so by leveraging low-cost, local internet access, providing direct cloud access, and reducing the amount of traffic that runs over the backbone.
At Optec, we’re honoured to partner with Fortinet to offer you the best in SD-WAN. Remember, the right solution can enhance your security, increase productivity, reduce costs, and provide the best for your people, no matter where they work from. We work with you on your terms, from a basic service build to bespoke configurations or from dedicated engineers and testing to ongoing management and maintenance—and everything in between. Please get in touch with our team today at 01280 878597 or sales@optec.co.uk to learn more.
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