SD-WAN is transforming the way businesses build their computational networks. Employees in a work from home situation are demanding more accessibility with greater speeds, and networks need to meet those demands while retaining strict security. Network Administrators have increasingly turned from VPN systems to SD-WAN in order to keep up with new demands on their networks.

On January 26th, 2022, Aruba Networks hosted Consistency, Connectivity, and the Cloud: Ensuring Safe Travels During Your Digital Transformation Journey, a virtual panel discussion featuring security and network executives to discuss the way they are transforming their networks to be future-proof and secure.

Here are a few important takeaways from the conversation:

1. Steering application traffic vs. routing

Software Defined Wide-Area Networks, or SD-WAN, was born out of a need to efficiently connect end users to an increasing array of applications required for work. SD-WAN technologies can intelligently connect users to the applications they require, rather than routing all traffic to a central server.

“You really want to access applications as closely as possible to where your workers are so that you keep the distance and delay low,” said Derek Garanth from Aruba Networks. SD-WAN technologies are able to steer application traffic based on a known network topology, rather than routing it.

2. The labor costs of router-centric networks

“The router-centric architecture is heavy on system administrators,” said Jim Routh, a former CISO. He described the challenge of opening a new branch using these older technologies. “You’re talking weeks to months of planning the approach, testing out scenarios, deploying it…so it’s a big deal from a labor perspective.”

Jim found that SD-WAN technologies eliminated a great deal of that labor cost and compressed timelines when opening new branches.

3. Scalability

Munya Kanaventi of Netflix described the problems of designing global networks in a world of instability and outages. “We have no forward-looking data to say, there’s gonna be three wildfires in California and a tornado in the midwest…all within the same 12 hours.” SD-WAN technologies allow Munya’s team to scale seamlessly and globally when outages occur and scale back down when it’s no longer required.

“You can scale and everyone on the receiving end still has the same quality and experience with the applications,” he said.

4. Security in SD-WAN technology

“The biggest gain for me was actually security,” said Matthew Douglas of Sentara Healthcare. He talked about the rigorous security requirements of working in the healthcare field, especially with the increasing demand for telehealth. “If you’re not moving towards getting more secure, you’re already hacked.”

SD-WAN technologies have allowed Matthew’s team to be more precise with the regulatory security demands required in healthcare networks.

5. Responding to the Internet of Things

Network administrators are dealing with a growing number of internet-connected devices on their networks. “You have to start getting technologies that are identifying devices on the wire and responding subsequently,” said Munya Kanaventi. “It’s about classifying certain devices in a certain way and encompassing them with secure technologies that are not intrusive to the device itself.”

The panel discussed the threats posed by these devices on their networks, and how SD-WAN technologies could help deal with those vulnerabilities.

Want to hear more about digital transformation and the future of networks? See the full event by filling out the form at the top of this page.