A growing business has unique network needs that can’t always be filled by broadband, 4G, LTE, or MPLS because these traditional connections are limited in scalability and capability. Network congestion, packet delay or loss, and service outages plague and hamper businesses just as they are beginning to get off the ground. To reach peak performance, SD-WAN is the answer.
SD-WAN utilizes software with a centralized control function to virtualize services. This functionality can handle priority-based traffic while still meeting security requirements and service level agreements.
As good as these features are, there’s more. Here are three other benefits of SD-WAN that are essential to your growing business.
1. Greater Network Performance
If you’ve ever tried to use video conferencing applications, you have undoubtedly seen quality loss in your calls. That’s because video conferencing requires way too much more bandwidth than is available, which affects the quality of your video and audio calls. Similarly, your cloud-based applications are affected.
SD-WAN significantly reduces the bandwidth required, allowing good video and call performance to come through, along with improving the performance of your cloud-based applications. Another perk of SD-WAN is not having to worry about internet outages that can debilitate your business. SD-WAN’s connection is in an active mode with a second WAN connection for keeping the internet plugging along even during an outage. You’ll never regret having this backup and neither will your customers.
2. Lower Expansion Costs
When you have a growing business, you also have growing bandwidth needs that are too often solved by buying extra capacity or private circuits. Both of these options can quickly get incredibly expensive with most ISPs. Fortunately, SD-WAN scales in a much easier way, at a fraction of the cost.
Additionally, the ease of SD-WAN expansion saves money in setup time. The process is seamless and quick so you can get right to work without suffering any lag.
3. Replaces Traditional Hardware
Because of the greater network performance, lower expansion costs, and ease in scalability that you get with SD-WANs, we are seeing a great overtaking of traditional WANs and MPLs in popularity. In fact, it’s estimated that in the next five years, 60-70% of companies will be replacing their MPLs with SD-WAN.
You can bet your competitors are making the switch and you don’t want to be the last one to convert and fall behind, watching your customers abandon your business for others who are keeping up with the changing times.
Choosing an SD-WAN Company
When looking at SD-WAN companies, you will find that FirstDigital offers everything your business needs.
Choosing FirstDigital for SD-WAN gives you:
- Seamless failover for constant availability
- Zero-touch deployment that is accessible from any network point
- Application performance monitoring of your connection, key metrics, and issues
- A simplified branch network for a unified approach to cloud management and policy enforcement
- Security that integrates next-generation firewall
- Cost savings from removing expensive hardware along with the ability to provision and scale
If you’re ready to see how FirstDigital can provide your growing business with essential SD-WAN, contact us today!