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Although MPLS has been serving the enterprise for many years, it can no longer fully meet the needs of global enterprises. Today, more than 50% of global WAN traffic reaches the cloud, but MPLS is designed for point-to-point connections, not point-to-point cloud and software as a service (SaaS). Moreover, MPLS has many other limitations.
No single provider can provide end-to-end MPLS services on a global scale. The global MPLS network requires a series of service providers to piece together. This can lead to maintainability issues and complicate the task of providing network redundancy in the process of resolving problems.
MPLS is a dynamic shared the medium. Although MPLS is traditionally viewed as a dedicated network service, it is actually a shared medium that carries certain risks. Conversely, security-conscious buyers will prefer dedicated bandwidth to make up for this vulnerability.
Not all "private networks" are safe. If no provider has an MPLS network on a global scale and traffic is only differentiated by MPLS labels, how difficult is the SPAN port and sniffing traffic? In addition, if you have to break through cloud/SaaS traffic over the Internet, you will be faced with new attack vectors.
MPLS is not designed for today's business speeds. Changing an order can take several weeks, and a new installation can take several months, and today's companies need to be able to add locations and make service changes at any time within a few days.
The cost is not balanced. The pricing of MPLS is still derived from the past. At that time, the bandwidth demand was only a small part of today, so premium pricing can be tolerated. According to some claims, bandwidth demand is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 26%, and MPLS is too expensive for everything.
The shortcomings of MPLS force companies to consider other options. But these options only solve part of the problem, leaving the planning, procurement, and management parts to the enterprise, which complicates the problem-solving work.
Traditional Point Solutions:
Customers are looking for some standard point solutions when they find that MPLS can't meet their needs. Each of the following points solutions - Internet, WAN optimization, redundancy, security, and SD-WAN - can solve some, but not all.
Internet. Most organizations consider using the Internet when their bandwidth needs change, or when rapid deployment requirements require a way to complement MPLS. Through the Internet, you can get features that are not possible with MPLS.
Although inexpensive and fast to deploy, WAN Internet links are susceptible to latency and packet loss. Stable latency issues have plagued issues such as VoIP and have introduced latency optimization options at the network and protocol levels. But this is even more worrying given that companies are now trying to use these links to access mission-critical clouds and SaaS services. The Internet lacks stability and does not provide service level agreements (SLAs) across the medium to long distances.
The same is true for packet loss. While applications and services are located internally or in some physical location, packet loss is still an issue, but with Cloud/SaaS/UCaaS, you can place your service anywhere in the world. If one of the layers supporting these services is the Internet, then end-to-end stability, packet loss recovery algorithms, and protocol enhancements are required.
WAN optimization. Whether you are trying to supplement MPLS by changing MPLS to meet new demands or using the public Internet. If you want to provide a consistent user experience (regardless of where the user is located), you need to add additional optimization tools to your WAN routing. This will involve a large amount of capital expenditure investment and leave you with more network resources to manage. Even so, it may not adequately address performance issues, especially in international situations.
Redundancy. Since you want to use the Internet to support links to mission-critical applications, you must build some redundancy. We are talking about more than just multiple devices, but the ability to use dual links in the edge and network core. Redundancy should also include the diversity of service providers that can be routed on both sides of the Earth. In other words, the best possible submarine and ground cable redundancy. There should also be software-defined features for further redundancy, such as point-of-point redundancy and data center redundancy.
Security. IPSec is a must, not only at the edge but also at the core or middle mile. You must also prove this by deploying and managing a number of common network security tools to ensure that no one can find a way to get into your network over the WAN.
SD-WAN. Software-defined WANs are very hot today, but most SD-WAN tools only provide software coverage and use the Internet for long-distance transfers. So while SD-WAN can use the Internet to supplement MPLS and develop strategies to clarify how traffic is handled, all of the issues raised above still exist.
If you have only a few locations and they are in the same area and you are not using a lot of cloud and SaaS services, this type of SD-WAN might be the answer you are looking for. However, if you're a large enterprise with many geographic locations and using (or considering moving to) many cloud services, the DIY SD-WAN toolkit will give you more, not to mention integration headaches.
So what is a good WAN?
There needs to be a better way to solve all of these problems. The ideal WAN should:
Optimize Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) - this has a triple impact on your traffic. Packets have a larger payload, tighter packets, faster throughput, and your first byte transfers faster. For any data application, TCP optimization is a must.
Use a complete SD-WAN algorithm to solve the packet loss recovery problem, not just one or two algorithms.
Provides the best flexibility to move, add or change sites, and quick disconnect.
Provides built-in redundancy at all layers of the infrastructure. Optimize bandwidth to optimize the money spent on the network.
Provide 24/7 support.
Provides detailed visibility through the portal, including not only input/output bandwidth, but also application-level usage, performance metrics, and statistics.
Provide a throat block for all of these services to avoid mutual blame.
All of this points to the services provided by SD-WAN, and SD-WAN as a service is different from point solutions. It eliminates the need to think about how to adapt to high-growth bandwidth; support enterprise digital transformation and migrate your services to the cloud. It simplifies the network and frees up IT resources while also focusing on opportunities to grow your business.
Now is the era of SD-WAN, the only thing that can meet your changing needs is SD-WAN as a service.
