How SD-WAN transforms your organisation and improves staff experience

With many organisations rushing to update their IT architectures in response to the pandemic, the importance of network security and flexibility has never been higher. By Charlie Tannous, Director Technology.

Recently I moderated in a panel of IT leaders discussing the impacts on business transformation of covid-19. In this blog, we’ll look at how SD-WAN technology plays an integral part in modernising the entire organisation, not just the network.

A modern business calls for a modern network

Without modernisation, organisations will struggle to transform; fail to deliver new products and services; and be held back by expensive, and inflexible IT.

And in today’s digital world, cloud and secure network transformation are key components of a modern enterprise.

A modern network helps organisations focus on their data as they modernise, because technology and architectures will continue to change.

As you transition from infrastructure to a platform, it is important that you’re in control of your data and your data sets, because the ability to shift data regardless if it’s hybrid or public cloud is critical to the success of the business – digital transformation is driving network traffic!

For many organisations, the pandemic shift has resulted in more clarity on what the priorities were around our legacy space, and a lot of that is related to security, access and to remote working.

Better external customer service is a big goal of modernisation programs, but there remains legacy that sits behind it, including inflexible networks.

Cloud, network and the components or modernisation

Everything from remote working during the pandemic to better customer experiences have highlighted the need for transformation, but IT leaders must include the tactical measures for modernising as part of their strategy. As an example, Cloud apps and services have overtaken web traffic, coupled with the challenge that 84% of internet traffic is encrypted.

Cloud is very transformative, but change should not stop there. Most businesses are in a dynamic digital environment, and even in cloud, the legacy aspect can be continuing to operate as an individual business.

To unlock data means architectural changes, so think about how to share data between diverse sources and unlock potential with a secure network.

The importance of SD-WAN, network security for experience

The rush to cloud and remote work has highlighted the importance of secure network and SD-WAN technologies for driving modernisation.

The ability to have a seamless experience whether you’re on a platform in public or hybrid cloud environment and overlaying security on top is very important, which comes standard with SD-WAN technology. The traditional security posture has changed for the enterprise, which is no longer centralised, rather you must focus on protecting all your users no matter where they are.

The need of a new cloud driven digital transformation which is inline, includes real-time protection for cloud that unifies threat protection, and data policy across all channels – SaaS, IaaS (public/cloud) and web.

Transforming the network – 3 things to start now:

1. Decouple your data. Work towards a more flexible network that allows you to manage data across present and future applications without being locked into a given platform. Taking ownership of your datasets regardless of which platform.
2. Shared architecture. Network modernisation should involve a platform for data exchange between staff, premises and cloud services. The other is the increasing need for high performance, secure access from any global location to any cloud or web destination.
3. Think security. Security should be integrated into the network and not an add-on. Secure SD-WAN secures network traffic from edge devices to public clouds. Secure remote access to private applications (hosted in private data centres or public cloud) to give workers the access they need, without exposing private applications to the internet.

With an SD-WAN, you can lower costs while managing your entire network from a centralised dashboard, rapidly deploying new branches with any transport, and automating operational workflows.

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