Why Performance Matters When Building Your New SD-WAN

The New Generation of High Performance SD-WANs

As enterprise IT considers ways to improve WAN functionality and service levels while lowering costs, the interest in SD-WANs has dramatically increased. Almost all of today’s SD-WAN solutions support dynamic path selection from multiple WAN services including MPLS and broadband Internet, centralized provisioning to increase IT efficiency and zero-touch provisioning to enable rapid deployment. But not all SD-WANs are created equal. As new applications emerge, whether hosted on premise or in the cloud, demands on WAN throughput, efficiency, and reliability increase. Performance-driven SD-WANs significantly improve application performance and Quality of Service (QoS) compared to other SD-WAN offerings, making it even easier for enterprises to justify adopting SD-WAN solutions. The ability to intelligently optimize the WAN based on specific application QoS demands, link quality, availability, or throughput levels in the same manner as with other types of networks is a game-changer. When evaluating SD-WANs, look for a solution that provides more options for IT while saving both CAPEX and OPEX and improving the performance of the WAN. Driving Performance through Multiple WAN Connections

To optimize available WAN options, organizations who are contracted with connectivity services and plan to use lower-cost broadband Internet services, should look for solutions that can bond different links together to meet optimum performance and QoS demands for different types of applications. Consider a solution where two or more WAN links - even of different connectivity types such as MPLS, Internet, or 4G/LTE, can be bonded into a single logical connection delivering numerous benefits. By using two or more connection types, a failure of a single link will not cause the entire connection to fail. Traffic is automatically rerouted to the remaining WAN link(s) without interruption. This provides substantially enhanced reliability without complex management and allocation processes that are difficult to administer. In addition, all WAN links should be able to be used to carry production traffic. In contrast to solutions that simply mirror traffic over multiple links for reliability, performance-driven solutions intelligently send traffic based on pre-defined Business Intent Policies across all links configured for the bonded logical connection. IT can prioritize the use of each WAN service in an optimal fashion. For example, lower-cost internet connectivity may be prioritized for certain types of applications or workloads while assigning MPLS connections for the highest priority traffic. This can lower the overall WAN costs and allow the addition of incremental WAN capacity at a lower cost. Not All SD-WANs are Equal: Performance Matters - Introducing Silver Peak’s Unity EdgeConnect

The use of broadband Internet connections in an SD-WAN environment has many benefits, however for any enterprise, performance and reliability cannot be compromised. Unlike other SD-WAN solutions in the market, Silver Peak’s Unity EdgeConnect delivers all the functionality needed to meet these essential requirements. Silver Peak delivers unrivalled levels of Performance and Quality of Service by:

• Bonding different links together to meet performance and QoS demands for every application

• Intelligently sending traffic based on Business Intent Policies

• Actively monitoring packet loss, latency, jitter and throughput through Dynamic Path Control

• Automatically allocating bandwidth to prevent congestion through the traffic-shaping engine

• Building overlays that treat each application’s needs individually, heightening its performance

• Improving Path Conditioning through Forward Error Correction and Packet Order Correction

• Providing the most advanced WAN optimization capabilities of any SD-WAN vendor

This all adds up to a truly enterprise-grade, performance-centric offering that positions the SD-WAN to become an even more effective solution for rapidly connecting users to any type of application, reducing time-to-market for new regional offices and overall increasing the performance, visibility and control over the entire network.

Watch the explanatory video about SD-WAN solutions here

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About Silver Peak Silver Peak gives enterprises and service providers the flexibility to securely connect their users to their applications via the most cost-effective source of connectivity available. Silver Peak customers can quickly migrate to an enterprise-grade WAN that leverages the Internet (often referred to as SD-WAN), while dramatically improving application performance and lowering networking costs. For more information on Silver Peak SD-WAN solutions, visit www.silver-peak.com.