SD-WAN Network Technology – Smart WAN Solutions – Top 15 SD-WAN Qualified Providers

Software-Defined-Wide-Area-Network

SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network)

SD-WAN (Software Defined Networking) is potentially a growing technology for WAN infrastructure, Engineers are preferring to go with new approach of managing a large enterprise network.But the challenge is large infrastructure with thousands of switches , Firewalls and hundreds of routers cannot simply move into SD-WAN overnight.

A software-define wide area networking is a virtualised concept of creating network layer by implementing overlay technology on top of hardware infrastructure.SD-WAN is a software-driven network approach, delivered as an end-to-end solution that brings a new level of efficiency and smart network operations to help your network operate at full potential.

Because, SD-WAN is abstracted from hardware piece of networking equipment, it is more flexible and agile than a standard WAN. It can operators remotely manage and quickly scale this overlay and running on application based platform of software-defined networking (SDN).

SD-WAN (Software-defined Wide Area Network) is an overlay technology (on top of the physical infrastructure) applied to various WAN connections such as broadband internet, 4G, LTE,  and MPLS. SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide-Area Networking) is an intelligent software based technique to make wide area networks more intelligent and flexible.

Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) is agile and smart WAN technology that businesses continuity is looking the changing way that connect to the cloud.Now the organisations can move away from captive, proprietary hardware solutions, bringing flexibility and potential cost savings to their operations. 

SD-WAN  is a smart and transforming technology that simplifies the control of application-driven infrastructure.SD-WAN can be used to connect enterprise networks including remote branch offices and data centre over the different geographic locations over secure wan transport protocols.

SD-WAN uses a centralised control function to securely and intelligently direct traffic across the WAN. This increases application performance, resulting in enhanced user experience, increased business productivity and reduced costs for IT.

SD-WAN provide administrative control of network layers , applications flow , Policy and security is separated from underlaying hardware. SD-WAN network use a centralise admin consoles Network management and config controls by centralised consoles instead of physical locations of individual edge devices and infrastructures.

SD-WANs offer agility, flexibility, reduced operation cost (bandwidth and management), great connectivity to cloud and multiple consumption models.


SD-WAN (Software-defined Wide Area Network) is a virtualisation architecture of WAN allow enterprises to build a high performance network by using combination of transport services including MPLS, 4G/5G LTE and broadband internet services.


SD-WAN Key Advantages –

SD-WAN was developed with the cloud in mind.SD-WAN offers direct connectivity to the cloud from any location without injecting traffic through existing on-premises network infrastructure.The end-users get advantage of closer connectivity to the apps and data hosted locally in region or country.This way you can improve the end-user experience and provide them better network performance.

  • Reduce network infrastructure costs with transport independence across MPLS, 4G/5G LTE and broadband internet.
  • Improve application access performance faster, more reliable connectivity.
  • Policy based application based traffic prioritisation (quality of service – QOS)
  • Connecting branch offices to the Cloud network easy with secure.
  • Optimising user experience and efficiency for software-as-a-service (SaaS) and public-cloud applications.
  • Simplifying operations with automation and cloud-based management.
  • Secure private/public cloud connectivity, regardless of cloud platforms, applications and transports.
  • Zero-Touch Provisioning push configurations and policies are programmed once and pushed to all branch locations.

Why SD-WAN Market

Today, every organization meet applications requirements in order to migrating their application to the cloud platform and traditional network is not fit to support traditional WANs were never architected for the cloud.Enterprise business applications are no longer hosted in enterprise data centres, as they are hosted in different location.

Today most companies are migrating their branch office , Remote site and warehouses connectivity to SD-WAN. Because End-users demand direct connectivity to cloud hosted application instead routing through Data-Center. Business need to address these changes and create a robust and easy managed , agile and lower cost WAN solution.

  • On-premise – Data centres.
  • Public or private clouds – AWS , Azure
  • SaaS CloudOffice365 , Workday

Since , traditional network device like router that backhauls traffic from the branch to Data-Center to the internet , to the Cloud and back again does’t make sense to add extra network hop resulting adds latency and delay impairs application performance resulting in poor user experience and lost productivity. Employees often report that their business apps run faster at home or on their mobile devices than at the office.

Client-server model distributed application are perfectly binding with SD-WANs at an accelerating pace because they help businesses become more agile, increase business productivity and reduce the operational costs.

Software Defined Wide Area Network known as “SD-WAN” is a software defined networking (SDN) approach that elevates network traffic management away from hardware and on-premise management, to next generation software in the cloud for enhanced agility, control and visibility.


Top 15 SD-WAN Qualified Providers.

Cisco Viptela SD-WAN

Viptela a Cisco techie company that delivers a cloud-first, software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) solution.Cisco and Viptela deliver next generation SD-WAN Solutions offerings to customers by combining the best of Viptela’s SD-WAN solution with the best of Cisco’s Enterprise routing solutions.

Cisco IWAN SD-WAN

Cisco IWAN solutions (Cisco SD-WAN Products) is built on an existing Cisco product line.Cisco Intelligent WAN (iWAN) has a secure , traffic control features without compromising the application experience, performance, wan acceleration, quality of service, Monitoring and security of cloud-based applications. Organizations can use IWAN to leverage the Internet as WAN transport, DMVPN connection to branch office , vpn tunnelling for remote site.

Cisco Meraki SD-WAN

Cisco Meraki MX security box provide quick SD-WAN solution to connect remote branch over lower cost broadband internet.Meraki MX device significantly save on WAN costs and deliver the desired level of performance for business critical cloud applications.Cisco Meraki security Appliances can be remotely deployed in minutes using zero-touch cloud provisioning. 100% centralized network management with Meraki cloud dashboard for security, networking, and application control.

Riverbed SD-WAN

SteelHead SD-WAN provides a single, unified orchestration and connectivity fabric across the entire distributed enterprise network with embedded security, optimization, and visibility. 

Riverbed SD-WAN solution available as a virtual appliance or a comprehensive WAN Edge solution with SD-WAN, application acceleration, visibility and security in a single device.Riverbed SD-WAN Built on a software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) platform, SteelHead SD is managed through simple, natural language policy. Policy extends across WAN, WLAN/LAN, data centers and Cloud so that network silos don’t hold back innovation. And integrations with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Zscaler that are truly unique so cloud transformation can actually help you be more agile.Velocloud SD-WAN

VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud simplifies branch WAN networking by automating deployment and improving performance over private, broadband Internet and LTE links for today’s increasingly distributed enterprises, as well as service providers.VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud enables enterprises to securely support application growth, network agility, and simplified branch implementations while delivering high-performance, reliable branch access to cloud services, private data centers and SaaS-based enterprise applications.

Aryaka SD-WAN

Aryaka managed SD-WAN portfolio designed to meet the needs of the Cloud-First enterprise. The new offerings cover areas of connectivity, application acceleration, cloud, security and analytics, all brought together seamlessly, and “as-a-service”. We’re calling this the Cloud-First WAN.

in the case of Aryaka-

  • Consumption models with “as-a-service” subscription offerings drive agility and time to market allowing IT and infrastructure teams to rapidly adapt to the needs of the business
  • Operational simplicity comes from our best-of-breed managed services that allow our customers to radically simplify complexity and distribute simplicity
  • The multi-cloud ready architecture offers choice to bring any application to any cloud connecting public cloud providers, SaaS providers, or partner clouds delivering consistency of experience

In reality, it is the coming together of all these in perfect harmony through an integrated architectural approach that delivers an unparalleled user and application experience.

Barracuda SD-WAN

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall combines a complete set of SD-WAN capabilities with advanced, multi-layered security technologies in a single unit.Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is available on-premises as a physical or virtual appliance, or in the cloud.

Avoid deployment hassles with Zero-Touch Deployment—remote-location personnel without IT expertise can simply plug in the appliance, and it will automatically connect to Barracuda Firewall Control Center, download and install its configuration file, and deploy itself on the network.

Juniper SD-WAN

SDWAN solutions from Juniper enable you to add advanced threat prevention services to expand on our native next-gen firewall and universal threat management capabilities. Manage and secure all MPLS, broadband, and 4G LTE wireless links through one centrally enforced security and application flow policy.It’s also cover management and security for branch LAN switches.

Big Leaf SD-WAN

Build a worry-free, cloud-ready network with Bigleaf SD-WAN

Bigleaf Cloud-first SD-WAN is the next generation of Internet optimization – based on the natural redundancy found in leaf veins. We connect you through our plug-and-play router in your office, to our gateway clusters in the Cloud, providing end-to-end visibility and control.

Cato SD-WAN

Cato SD-WAN enables organizations to augment MPLS with affordable last mile services (Fiber, Broadband, 4G/LTE) and dynamically direct traffic based on applications needs and link quality. Unlike legacy SD-WAN solutions that use the public Internet with MPLS, Cato is uniquely capable to replace MPLS altogether with our global SLA-backed backbone. Cato further extends the benefits of SD-WAN to cloud resources and mobile users and provides a full cloud-based network security stack to secure all WAN and Internet traffic.

Ecessa SD-WAN

Ecessa SD-WAN creates secure Never Down networks that simply do not fail.Ecessa SD-WAN experts and specialize in designing, sourcing, and launching hybrid and SD-WAN networks.By deploying automatic failover and leveraging up to 25 communication links ranging from MPLS, lower cost broadband, cable, satellite, microwave or cellular 5G/4G/LTE, we guarantee uptime and keep our clients’ businesses growing.

Comcast Business SD-WAN

Comcast Business SD-WAN combines secure IP-VPN, application-aware routing, and a stateful network firewall. This software-defined service is delivered over the public internet via a carrier-class IP-backbone, leveraging Comcast’s broadband and fiber-based connectivity solutions.

With Comcast Business SD-WAN on its ActiveCore software defined networking (SDN) platform, customers can augment or replace their existing network with an alternative providing bandwidth, reliability and flexibility. With firewall-secured, branch-level internet connectivity to a public cloud, Comcast Business SD-WAN accelerates performance across the enterprise data network and can reduce the cost of backhauling data traffic through corporate data centers.

Major elements of the Comcast Business SD-WAN are application-aware routing, secure VPNs, stateful firewalls, automation through policies, central management, use of virtual network functions (VNFs), and using its ActiveCore SDN platform as a foundation.

Verizon SD-WAN

Verizon provides an advanced SDN architecture that is built for growing businesses. Software Defined Secure Branch (SDSB) leverages secure dynamic connectivity on top of a transport-agnostic fabric to create a secure, flexible network hybrid that is fully managed by Verizon. It combines networking technologies such as private IP, dedicated internet, internet broadband and 4G LTE into a hybrid SDN. This design allows organizations to specify multiple transit paths depending on application needs and network type.

Verizon’s tested practices and processes, portals and platforms help businesses absorb the new technology without making drastic changes. A life-cycle management approach helps organizations develop a migration plan that accommodates changing priorities today and into the future.

Orange Flexible SD-WAN

The Orange SD-WAN service is called Flexible SD-WAN developing a new network approach for a more agile and cost-effective connectivity approach. Flexible SD-WAN brings the most innovative technology compatible with all designs.

Orange SD-WAN service use proprietary products and technical partnerships with vendors, cloud providers, and ISPs to ensure you can benefit from cutting edge technology at all times for cloud services and security.The service can be managed and controlled by Orange, the customer, or with the responsibilities split between the two.

AT&T SD-WAN

AT&T offering two flavours of SD-WAN : a network-based version and an over-the-top (OTT) version. The network-based SD-WAN is similar to most SD-WAN offerings like Intelligent traffic routing based on link performance connections and Built-in deep packet inspection  for Application Visibility.

The OTT SD-WAN service uses the network simply for the transport of traffic. By creating an overlay network on top of any public or private network and encrypting all application traffic with an IPSec tunnel, your connections to applications, services, and resources are highly secure.

🎯SD-WAN is smart wan solution for enterprise replacing exiting legacy MPLS.On the wider view of internet connectivity, SD-WAN allows security features to be distributed to the network edge and provide secure connection to cloud Applications.Ensure this practice can improve the latency and performance.

Author: Ronnie Singh

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