One of the most important things to look at when you decide to take WAN and optimize it to be software defined, is if it is worth it. You have to take into consideration how much money you will have to invest in this business venture in order to get it functioning properly. You don’t want a complete overhaul of your system just to get it to work with the SD-WAN company you decided to go with, you have to always think about compatibility. You want something you can just swap out without a lot of effort. There are quite a bit of SD-WAN providers out there and it’s pretty obvious you want to go with the one that will benefit the business the most. As a company owner, you have to ask yourself if it is in the best interests of the company.
It might actually be worth it in the long run; everything in this life is an investment, and every investment is a risk. There is a good chance that the SD-WAN is a pretty safe investment. There is a downside however, a lot of those providers require long-term commitment. This of course means long-term contracts. Early termination often results in a fee, and you can bet that fee won’t be something to shake a stick at. Keep in your mind that most business WANs have high upkeep and are very complicated. Linking distant offices with a multiprotocol label switching network has always been extremely helpful.
However, with that guaranteed privacy, speed, and fine quality of service that is just so wonderful comes a pretty hefty price tag. With SD-WAN, a benefit of their Cloud delivered SD-WAN is that it is cost-effective. Broadband is simply not as functional as an MPLS network, but the broadband bandwidth bonus for the money is such a great perk. Although these MPLS networks are great, the complexity of implementing them can be too much at times and although there are services to keep network traffic focused and prioritized, it is still too complex to be practical. The network system still requires too much network maintenance from the tech department for a change in the expected traffic flow. If you have an SD-WAN these actions all become automated, and no need for user adjustment.
