WAN Management is a way to identify applications and hosts using bandwidth on the network. It can also be used to manage the network in terms of security, resilience, and scalability.
WAN Management
WAN management with SD-WAN is a software-defined approach to implementing a WAN or wide area network. Compared to legacy WAN solutions, it offers significant benefits, such as improved performance, lower costs, and reduced IT management. It also supports hybrid cloud environments and can connect remote sites with multiple clouds. Combined with zero-touch provisioning, it can reduce complexity and opex, allowing enterprises to focus on applications instead of WAN infrastructure.
With an SD-WAN solution, users at branch offices are connected to the applications in data centers, allowing them to access the information they need in real-time. As a result, WAN management with SD-WAN can increase business productivity and help companies meet the demands of the modern IT landscape.
The new generation of SD-WAN solutions can also help enterprises scale. For example, Riverbed’s SD-WAN integrates unified threat management and malware protection, delivering comprehensive visibility, performance, and resilience for all your applications.
Resilience
Keeping critical networks up and running can be a challenge so it is really important to understand what SD-WAN is. Unexpected issues can cause network traffic surges. And, if a network goes down, the damage accumulates quickly. The right tools can help you minimize your exposure.
For example, a smart out-of-band management solution can provide secure access to your infrastructure. It can also supply an always-on alternative path to your devices. This can mitigate the risk of disruptions associated with SD-WAN.
The best network resilience solution will also include an intelligent system to monitor equipment and ensure that management can remotely recover any issues. This can reduce the amount of time needed to troubleshoot and resolve problems.
Many other useful tools are available to help make your network more resilient. These include out-of-band management and NetOps automation, both capable of generating essential benefits.
A smart out-of-band solution will allow you to keep all your IT applications online no matter what happens to your Internet connection. It can even provide failover to a cellular connection. This resilience is vital for health care providers, where patient records and other medical data are at stake.
Scalability
Using software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), your WAN can be adapted to your business needs. It enables you to add or subtract links as necessary. This helps your company to reduce costs and improve performance.
As an IT administrator, you must know how to use SD-WAN to provide a secure and reliable WAN for your organization. This will enable you to deliver improved productivity, security, and analytics. You can also use the technology to direct traffic from the branch to the cloud.
Software-defined WAN architectures can also offer WAN optimization on links and visibility into network traffic. They can also provide application acceleration.
With the help of a managed service provider, financial services organizations can use SD-WAN to support their operations. These organizations must ensure that their customers can access applications and get the information they need.
SD-WANs allow for easy capacity expansion, so companies can accommodate a growing number of remote employees. A company with many remote employees can increase capacity by adding new PoPs or decreasing the number of existing ones.
When compared to MPLS, SD-WAN is more cost-effective. This is because it uses multiple links from different providers to create a pool of resources for the WAN network.
Identifying Applications and Hosts Consuming Bandwidth
Identifying applications and hosts consuming bandwidth is no easy feat. A congested link can hide under provisioned bandwidth in other areas. Thankfully, the tools of the trade are readily available and cost a fraction of what it would take to put together a similar report by hand. One such tool is the aptly titled NetFlow Analyzer. Its top-notch performance makes it a must-have for any enterprise’s infrastructure stack.
In addition to its plethora of network traffic monitoring capabilities, NetFlow Analyzer can also help you identify top talkers on your network and the applications utilizing the most bandwidth. Using a tool like the software above, you’ll get a thorough picture of the state of your network, which is especially useful in the event of an intrusion. It’s also worth mentioning that the software’s ability to monitor multiple links can help you get a better idea of which networks are being hit hardest.
Identifying the applications above and hosts consuming bandwidth can be daunting, but the above software can make it a breeze. In the process, you’ll gain a better understanding of your network’s bandwidth usage, which can be used to improve the overall performance of your network.
Security
Whether you are new to SD-WAN or have used it in the past, there are several security features that you should be familiar with. These include microsegmentation, zero-touch provisioning, and firewalls.
Microsegmentation is an SD-WAN feature that separates traffic based on its application. This ensures that sensitive data does not get compromised. In addition, it allows for more robust security standards to be applied to apps. This also allows admins to adjust their security policy for specific segments of app traffic.
In the age of the cloud, it is crucial to establish micro-segmentation. It uses core network functionality, such as SSL inspection, to prevent unauthorized access. It is also critical to have next-generation firewalls, which can be hardware-based or virtualized. These solutions should provide malware detection and intrusion detection.
Next-generation firewalls can help protect WAN architecture and WAN edge applications. They should also offer web content filtering, malware detection, and application monitoring.
A cloud-based console gives administrators a full overview of their LANs, WLANs, and cloud environments. It also enables enterprise-wide coordination of data traffic. Moreover, it allows for the quick deployment of changes.
