With web video conferencing, email, internet-based telephony and file sharing everyday activities for businesses of all sizes, your network needs to support your telecommunications offerings (telco) at all times. Read on to learn more about how software-defined wide area networking can keep things moving and provide a seamless user experience
Business Operations Require Strong Telecommunications
With people working anywhere and everywhere, remote work is here to stay. Your telecommunications applications need to be up to the task, for collaboration among workers and customers’ interactions with your business. Efficient telecommunications can help enhance collaboration and make communication seamless, improving the user experience and garnering more revenue as well. Software-defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) is the best option for making such things happen.
Software Defined Wide Area Networking Improves Efficiency and Security
A software-defined wide area network is a cloud-based approach to the management of a wide-area network. SD-WAN brings together multiple networks to make connection seamless, using business class broadband as well as MPLS already used in simple wide-area networking. With the cloud provider maintaining the infrastructure, all that is needed for the users is an Internet connection and an appliance like a laptop computer. Users and devices can easily be added, making this way of networking scalable. What’s more, SD-WAN eliminates the need for data to travel to a data center before reaching its destination, thus making the data less liable to loss, compromise and latency. A built-in firewall and centrally managed security policies protect you from bad actors accessing your network. If something happens and policies need to be changed, the changes can be programmed and easily go out to all devices attached to the network.
Considerations in Choosing a Provider
What if you are considering SD-WAN to boost your telecom offerings, but aren’t sure where to start? When looking for a provider, ask them if they can work with your current network while getting the new one started. Will they work with you to set security parameters around network traffic? Some key security features to think about are next-generation firewalls and encryption, to prevent bad actors from intercepting and reading data exchanged on the network. Repeated testing is another offering to look for.
Software-Defined Wide Area Networks can position your telco offerings to be even more efficient. For further assistance, contact your trusted technology advisor today.