In this lesson,
we're going to cover software-defined wide area networks.
As our organizations become increasingly more reliant
on cloud-based applications
that are used by our geographically distributed workforces,
this has led to an increased demand for agile, secure,
and efficient network infrastructures
that can be created quickly.
A software-defined wide area network,
or an SD-WAN, is a virtualized approach
to managing and optimizing wide area network connections
to efficiently route traffic between remote sites,
data centers, and cloud-based environments.
An SD-WAN represents a huge innovation in our networks
and security architectures.
Now, an SD-WAN, or software-defined wide area network,
is a virtual wide area network architecture
that allows enterprises to leverage any combination
of transport services to securely connect users
to their applications.
An SD-WAN is essentially a software-based WAN architecture
with all the control extracted from the underlying hardware.
So instead of configuring specific infrastructure
to handle application traffic using something like MPLS,
you can now manage an SD-WAN entirely inside a software.
Plus, you can layer it
over multiple types of network transport.
This means we can really use
any of the other WAN connections we may want to,
things like MPLS, a cellular connection, a microwave link,
a regular broadband internet service, like a cable modem,
or anything else
in order to create a virtual wide area network architecture
that we can then run our networks on top of.
To create an SD-WAN,
you can use a centralized control function
to securely and intelligently redirect the traffic
across the WAN.
Our traditional WANs,
which were never developed
with the idea of integrating cloud services
into our enterprise environments, simply can't do this.
Instead, SD-WANs enable our cloud-first enterprises
to deliver amazing quality experiences for our users.
Now, let's consider a company
that has several branch offices
and one headquarters location.
In our traditional WAN architectures,
each branch office would likely be connected back
to the central office using a star topology.
This would allow the headquarters
to conduct advanced security on that traffic
as it went from the branch offices to the headquarters
and then out to the internet.
Now, this is great for security, sure,
but it really does slow down the entire process
for our end users who are located at those branch offices,
and it result in a poor user experience
and loss productivity.
Now, unlike traditional architectures, though,
SD-WAN can solve this by using intelligence
to identify the network applications
that are being used by those end users,
and then routing that data across the WAN
to the right places.
This allows your WAN environment
to be much more dynamic and efficient,
while providing improvements in visibility,
performance, and manageability
of an enterprise WAN architecture
from a single centralized point.
So if you're working at a large enterprise network
and you have a lot of branch offices
and they're trying to move more and more into the cloud
using things like IaaS and PaaS and SaaS,
you may need to use an SD-WAN
to increase the performance for your end users
and reduce the bottlenecks they're being caused
by your traditional centralized WAN architectures.
So remember, as our work environments
become increasingly more geographically dispersed,
understanding and implementing a solution
like an SD-WAN is going to be important for you to consider.
This technology isn't just about keeping pace
with digital transformation, though,
but it's really focused on anticipating the future,
preparing for its challenges,
and capitalizing on the opportunities.
An SD-WAN, or a software-defined wide area network,
is a virtualized approach
to managing and optimizing wide area network connections
to efficiently route our traffic between remote sites,
data centers, and cloud environments.
And by leveraging this kind of technology,
we can elevate our organizational security posture
while continuing to move forward in our careers
and migrate more heavily into our cloud-based environments.