Traditional router-centric WAN architectures were architected in an era when applications were hosted exclusively in the datacentre.
Legacy WAN architectures make the process of deploying new applications or provisioning new policies or making policy changes an arduous task. Configuration, deployment and management requires specialised on-premise IT expertise at each location to manually configure each router using a CLI that was invented in the 1980s. This process is lengthy, complex, error-prone, costly and inefficient.
However, the datacentre is not the only component of IT that could benefit from software-defined technology. Enterprise wide area networks (WANs) have traditionally been major sources of cost and complexity for organisations.
Although utilising a service providers MPLS network to string together a number of remote offices and branches is highly effective and provides enterprises with a number or connectivity options, security and QoS SLA’s- it is also very expensive. SD-WAN can dramatically reduce these costs.