SD-WAN Static Network-Based

 

 

SD-WAN Static Network-Based

SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) has revolutionized how modern businesses manage their networks. Dynamic and flexible, SD-WAN offers numerous advantages over traditional WAN architectures. In this blog post, we will delve into the concept of SD-WAN Static Network-Based and explore the benefits it brings to organizations.

SD-WAN Static Network-Based is a specific deployment model within the broader SD-WAN framework. In this approach, network administrators configure static routes to direct traffic across the WAN. Unlike dynamic routing, where traffic flow is determined on the fly, static routing allows for more granular control and predictability.

 

Highlights: SD-WAN Static Network-Based

  • Change in Landscape

We are now in full swing of a new era of application communication, with more businesses looking for an SD-WAN Static Network-Based solution suitable for them. Digital communication now formulates our culture and drives organizations to a new world, improving productivity around the globe.

The dramatic changes in application consumption introduce new paradigms while reforming how we approach networking. Networking around the Wide Area Network (WAN) must change as the perimeter dissolves.

  • Recent Application Requirements

Recent application requirements drive a new type of SD WAN Overlay that more accurately supports today’s environment with an additional layer of policy management. It’s not just about IP addresses and port numbers anymore; it’s the entire suite of business logic that drives the correct forwarding behavior. The WAN must start to make decisions holistically.

It is not just a single module in the network design and must touch all elements to capture the correct per-application forwarding behavior. It should be automatable and rope all components together to form a comprehensive end-to-end solution orchestrated from a single pane of glass. Before we delve into the drivers for an SD-WAN Static Network-Based solution, you may want to recap SD-WAN with this SD WAN tutorial.

 

Before you proceed, you may find the following posts helpful:

  1. SD WAN Security 
  2. SD WAN SASE

 



SD-WAN Static Network-Based.

Key SD-WAN Static Network-Based Discussion points:


  • Introduction to an application-orientated WAN.

  • The drivers for SD-WAN.

  • Limitations of some protocols.

  • Dicsussion on WAN challenges.

  • List the SD-WAN core features.

 

Back to Basic With SD-WAN Static Network-Based

The traditional network

The networks we depend on for business are sensitive to many factors that can result in a slow and unreliable experience. We can experience latency, which either refers to the time between a data packet being sent and received or the round-trip time, which is the time it takes for the packet to be sent and for it to get a reply.

We can also experience jitter, the variance in the time delay between data packets in the network, basically a “disruption” in the sending and receiving packets. We have fixed bandwidth networks that can experience congestion. For example, with five people sharing the same Internet link, each could experience a stable and swift network, add another 20 or 30 people onto the same link, and the experience will be markedly different.

Benefits of SD-WAN Static Network-Based:

1. Enhanced Security:

With SD-WAN Static Network-Based, organizations gain greater control over their network security. By configuring static routes, administrators can ensure that traffic flows through secure paths, minimizing the risk of data breaches. Additionally, static routing reduces the exposure to potential threats by limiting the number of entry points into the network.

2. Improved Performance:

Static routing enables organizations to optimize network performance by establishing the most efficient paths for data transmission. Administrators can minimize latency and packet loss by carefully designing the network architecture, resulting in faster and more reliable application delivery. This is particularly crucial for organizations that rely on real-time applications such as video conferencing or VoIP.

3. Simplified Network Management:

One of the key advantages of SD-WAN Static Network-Based is its simplicity in network management. With static routing, administrators have complete visibility and control over the network infrastructure. They can easily configure, monitor, and troubleshoot the network, reducing the complexity associated with dynamic routing protocols. This simplification allows IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives rather than spending excessive time on network maintenance.

4. Cost Savings:

SD-WAN Static Network-Based can lead to significant cost savings for organizations. By leveraging existing network infrastructure and optimizing traffic flow, businesses can reduce the need for expensive bandwidth upgrades. Additionally, static routing eliminates the need for complex routing protocols, which can be costly to implement and maintain. These cost savings make SD-WAN Static Network-Based an attractive option for organizations seeking to maximize their network efficiency while minimizing expenses.

SD-WAN Static Network-Based: Application-Orientated WAN

  • Push to the cloud.  

When geographically dispersed users connect back to central locations, their consumption triggers additional latency degrading the application’s performance. No one can get away from latency unless we find ways to change the speed of light. One way is to shorten the link by moving to cloud-based applications.

The push to the cloud is inevitable. Most businesses are now moving away from on-premise in-house hosting to cloud-based management. Nevertheless, the benefits of moving to the cloud are manifold. It is easier for so many reasons.

The ready-made global footprint enables the usage of SaaS-based platforms that negate the drawbacks of dispersed users tromboning to a central data center. This software is pivotal to millions of businesses worldwide, which explains why companies such as Capsifi are so popular.

Logically positioned cloud platforms are closer to the mobile user. It’s increasingly far more efficient from the technical and business standpoint to cloud host these applications that make them available over the public Internet.

  • Bandwidth intensive applications

Richer applications, multimedia traffic, and growth in the cloud application consumption model drive the need for additional bandwidth. Unfortunately, we can only fit so much into a single link. The congestion leads to packet drops, ultimately degrading application performance and user experience. In addition, most applications ride on TCP, yet TCP was not designed with performance.

  • Organic growth

Organic business growth is a significant driver for additional bandwidth requirements. The challenge is that existing network infrastructures are static and unable to adequately respond to this growth in a reasonable period. The last mile of MPLS locks you in and kills agility. Circuit lead times impede the organization’s productivity and create an overall lag.

  • Costs

A WAN virtualization solution should be simple, and to serve the new era of applications, we need to increase the link capacity by buying more bandwidth. However, nothing is as easy as it may seem. The WAN is one of the network’s most expensive parts, and employing link oversubscription to reduce the congestion is too expensive.

Furthermore, bandwidth comes at a cost, and the ability to cater to application demands cannot be met with the existing TDM-based MPLS architectures. 

Traditional MPLS comes with a lot of benefits and is feature-rich. No one doubts this fact. MPLS will never die. However, it comes at a high cost for relatively low bandwidth. Unfortunately, MPLS’s price and capabilities are not a perfect couple.

  • Hybrid connectivity

Since there is not one stamp for the entire world, similar applications will have different forwarding preferences. Therefore, application flows are dynamic and change depending on user consumption. Furthermore, the MPLS, LTE, and Internet links often complement each other since they support different application types.

For example, Storage and Big data replication traffic are forwarded through the MPLS links, while cheaper Internet connectivity is used for standard Web-based applications.

  • Limitations of protocols

Hybrid connectivity is a challenge for IPsec when left to its defaults. IPSec architecture is point-to-point, not site-to-site. As a result, it doesn’t natively support redundant uplinks. Complex configurations are required when sites have multiple uplinks to multiple providers.

By default, IPsec is not abstracted; one session cannot be used over multiple uplinks, causing additional issues with transport failover and path selection. It’s a Swiss Army knife of features, and much of IPSec’s complexities should be abstracted. Secure tunnels should be torn up and down immediately, and new sites incorporated into a secure overlay without much delay or manual intervention. 

  • Internet of Things (IoT)

Security and bandwidth consumption are key issues concerning introducing IP-enabled objects and IoT access technologies. IoT is all about Data and will bring a shed load of additional overheads for networks to consume. As millions of IoT devices come online, how efficiently do we segment traffic without complicating the network design further? Complex networks are hard to troubleshoot, and simplicity is the mother of all architectural success. Furthermore, much IoT processing requires communication to remote IoT platforms. How do we account for the increased signaling traffic over the WAN? The introduction of billions of IoT devices leaves many unanswered questions.

  • Branch NFV

There has been strong interest in infrastructure consolidation by deploying Network Function Virtualization (NFV) at the branch. Enabling on-demand service and chaining application flows key drivers for NFV. However, traditional service chaining is static since it is bounded to a particular network topology. Moreover, it is typically built through manual configuration prone to human error.

  •  Challenges to existing WAN

Traditional WAN architectures consist of private MPLS links complemented with Internet links as a backup. Standard templates in most Service Provider environments are usually broken down into Bronze, Silver, and Gold SLAs. 

However, these types of SLA do not fit all geographies and often should be fine-tuned per location. Capacity, reliability, analytics, and security are all central parts of the WAN that should be available on demand. Traditional infrastructure is very static, and bandwidth upgrades and service changes require considerable time processing and locking agility for new sites.

It’s not agile enough, and nothing can be performed on the fly to meet the growing business needs. In addition, the cost per bit for the private connection is high, which is problematic for bandwidth-intensive applications, especially when the upgrades are too costly and can’t be afforded. 

 

  • A distributed world of dissolving perimeters

Perimeters are dissolving, and the world is becoming distributed. Applications require a WAN to support distributed environments along with flexible network points. Centralized-only designs result in suboptimal traffic engineering and increased latency. Increased latency disrupts the application performance, and only a particular type of content can be put into a Content Delivery Network (CDN). CDN cannot be used for everything.

Traditional WANs are operationally complex; people likely perform different network and security functions. For example, you may have a DMVPN, Security, and Networking specialist. Some wear all hats, but they are few and far between. Different hats have different ideas, and agreeing on a minor network change could take ages.

 

The World of SD-WAN Static Network-Based

SD-WAN replaces traditional WAN routers, agnostic to the underlying transport technology. You can have various link types, MPLS, LTE, and broadband. All combined. Based on policies generated by the business, SD-WAN enables load sharing across different WAN connections that more efficiently support today’s application environment.

It pulls policy and intelligence out of the network and places them into an end-to-end solution orchestrated by a single pane of glass. SDN-WAN is not just about tunnels. It consists of components that work together and supports simplifying network operations while meeting all bandwidth and resilience requirements.

Centralized points in the network are no longer adequate; we need network points positioned where it makes the most sense for the application and user. It is illogical to backhaul traffic to a central data center and is far more efficient to connect remote sites to a SaaS or IaaS model over the public Internet. The majority of enterprises prefer to connect remote sites directly to cloud services. So why not let them do this in the best possible way?

 

A new style of WAN and SD-WAN

We require a new style of WAN and a shift from a network-based approach to an application-based approach. The new WAN no longer looks solely at the network to forward packets. Instead, it looks at the business application and decides how to optimize it with the correct forwarding behavior. This new style of forwarding is problematic with traditional WAN architecture.

Making business logic decisions with IP and port number information is challenging. Standard routing is packet by packet and can only set part of the picture. They have routing tables and perform forwarding but essentially operate on their little island, losing out on a holistic view required for accurate end-to-end decision-making. An additional layer of information is needed.

A controller-based approach offers the necessary holistic view. We can now make decisions based on global information, not solely on a path-by-path basis. Getting all the routing information and compiling it into a dashboard to make a decision is much more efficient than making local decisions that only see parts of the network.

 

From a customer’s viewpoint, what would the perfect WAN look like if you could roll back the clock and start again?   

 

SD-WAN Static Network-Based Components

SD-WAN key features:

  • App-Aware Routing Capabilities

Not only do we need application visibility to forward efficiently over either transport, but we also need the ability to examine deep inside the application and look at the sub-applications. For example, to determine Facebook chat over regular Facebook. This removes the application’s mystery and allows you to balance loads based on sub-applications. It’s like using a scalpel to configure the network instead of a sledgehammer.

  • Ease Of Integration With Existing Infrastructure

The risk of introducing new technologies may come with a disruptive implementation strategy. Loss of service damages more than the engineer’s reputation. It hits all areas of the business. The ability to insert seamlessly into existing designs and incorporate new sites is a vital criterion. With any network change, a critical evaluation is to know how to balance risk with innovation while still meeting objectives.

How aligned is marketing content to what’s happening in reality? It’s easy for marketing materials to implement their solution at Layer 2 or 3! It’s an entirely different ball game doing this. SD-WAN carries a certain amount of due diligence. One way to read between the noise is to examine who has real-life deployments with proven Proof of concept (POC) and validated designs. Proven POC will help you guide your transition in a step-by-step manner.

  • Regional Specific Routing Topologies

Every company has different requirements for hub and spoke full mesh and Internet PoP topologies. For example, Voice should follow a full mesh design, while Data requires a hub and spokes connecting to a central data center. Nearest service availability is the key to improved performance, as there is little we can do about the latency Gods except by moving services closer together. 

  • Centralized Device Management & Policy Administration

The manual box-by-box approach to policy enforcement is not the way forward. It’s similar to stepping back into the Stone Age to request a catered flight. The ability to tie everything to a template and automate enables rapid branch deployments, security updates, and configuration changes. The optimal solutions have everything in one place and can dynamically push out upgrades.

  • High Available With Automatic Failovers

You cannot apply a singular viewpoint to high availability. An end-to-end solution should address the high availability requirements of the device, link, and site level. WANs can fail quickly, but this requires additional telemetry information to detect failures and brownout events. 

  • Encryption On All Transports

Irrespective of link type, whether MPLS, LTE, or the Internet, we need the capacity to encrypt on all those paths without the excess baggage of IPsec. Encryption should happen automatically, and the complexity of IPsec should be abstracted.

 

Conclusion:

In the era of digital transformation, organizations require a network architecture that is flexible, secure, and scalable. SD-WAN Static Network-Based offers businesses the ability to achieve these goals and more. With enhanced security, improved performance, simplified network management, and cost savings, SD-WAN Static Network-Based is a powerful solution for organizations looking to optimize their network infrastructure. By embracing this innovative technology, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and thrive in today’s digital landscape.

Matt Conran
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