How To Reduce The Cost Of SD-WAN Services

Cloud

SD-WAN services are designed to provide the same level of reliability as MPLS, which will result in less downtime, more throughput, and reduced cost. SD-WAN services are available from a variety of providers. While the goal of SD-WAN is the same as MPLS, the cost and implementation methodologies can vary greatly.

One of the critical roles for sd wan technology is to provide a means to migrate applications from traditional WAN services such as MPLS networks. Although the use of MPLS has been broad and successful, there are areas where it is highly inefficient and not cost-effective. A vital component of the high cost associated with MPLS is the high bandwidth consumption resulting from long-distance transport. SD-WAN services are designed to provide the same level of reliability as MPLS, which will result in less downtime, more throughput, and reduced cost.

SD-WAN services are available from a variety of providers

While the goal of SD-WAN is the same as MPLS, the cost and implementation methodologies can vary greatly. The following are several key areas that need to be considered when evaluating SD-WAN services.

Disaggregation – SD-WAN providers typically aggregate the WAN services of multiple locations into a single point of entry. However, local management and control of these services are desirable for many reasons; if a site experiences an outage, it can be corrected at its source. In addition, different WAN services on the same link may require upgrades or configuration changes that are necessary but would be impractical or impossible on a significant aggregation point.

Latency – Most MPLS services use a leased line connection between two locations. Depending on the distance the leased lines are, the propagation latency could range from a few nanoseconds to hundreds of milliseconds. Leased lines do not typically use an internet protocol (IP), which means that the traffic is routed through multiple layers of network devices; each of which adds latency to the transport. Since leased lines are typically used to connect locations over a relatively short distance, the additional latency is not critical. However, leased-line services are expensive for long-distance connections.

Billing – The complexity of billing for MPLS is very high. Monitoring, reporting, and analysis of traffic between locations are not easy. Each provider has different algorithms for metering traffic and billing customers.

How to reduce your cost

There are multiple ways to implement and install a single WAN service (SD-WAN) in a business. An implementation that involves numerous vendors is considered WAN hybridization. WAN hybridization is an approach where multiple WAN service providers are used to deliver a single solution. This can see that numerous WAN providers are used. Since the user has more flexibility, the cost of the service is reduced. However, it is easy to confuse a WAN hybrid solution as a full SD-WAN implementation.

It’s not easy, but it’s not complicated either to implement a hybrid solution. The first thing to decide is what kind of network you want to have: one that covers the entire country or works only within your city or organization. Each of these types of networks will have different requirements for the type of WAN service you need.

A hybrid network usually uses a mix of different services depending on what is available. A hybrid network can still be used for both local and long-distance communications. However, it can be expensive, which is why network managers try to keep long-distance communications at a minimum.