There are immense benefits that come with working from home (WFH), accessible remote working, and globalised workforces.
By Colin Thornton, chief financial officer of Turrito Networks
Companies gain access to skills and talent on a global scale, and they provide their employees with flexible working conditions that engage, shape and build cultural longevity. However, networking and connectivity remain a consistent challenge in this new era of work. Organisations need solutions that offer them significant improvements over traditional MPLS wide-area networks. While SD-WAN is a solid and capable solution that’s seen significant growth, it comes with some challenges.
In 2013, SD-WAN emerged as an alternative to MPLS and rapidly evolved into a commercially successful solution. The market, already worth $2-billion is expected to reach $19 billion by 2026, making this the ubiquitous networking technology for companies that want to connect and collaborate around the world. However, when WFH took off, it created an unexpected hole in SD-WAN capabilities.
The challenge is that SD-Wan relies on high-level hardware at each point and even though many employees have access to FTTH (fibre to the home), they only have entry-level routers at home. They can connect to the SD-WAN network, but only through VPN technology that is slower with increased latency.
Companies can’t afford to send expensive routers to every home – especially if they have thousands of employees. And the most common home routers require workarounds to allow users to connect properly to the software-defined corporate network, or they need to connect directly to the internet with limited control, security or reporting.
This is further complicated by the need to ensure that the hardware is properly configured. SD-WAN is a lot easier to maintain than traditional solutions, but if you don’t have granular control then it introduces problems around the configuring and supporting of home users. To establish oversight and control is expensive, and if an employee leaves the company, recovering the hardware is a headache. So, SD-WAN is only half the solution to the connected WFH problem.
But. Before looking at how SD-WAN fails, it’s worth unpack how it succeeds. These problems are not the door slamming in SD-WAN’s face. The technology still offers the business numerous benefits. It’s just an opportunity to refine and reshape SD-WAN investment and tools to ensure that it consistently delivers to business expectations, and employee requirements.
SD-WAN manages network traffic more efficiently by selecting the best routes and allowing for internet access across multiple mediums, often cheaper ones. It also provides admins with clear oversight and control of the entire software-defined part of the network. It allows for a neat mix of office/home/branch connectivity, and provides the business with plenty of options that include trusted hardware and as-a-Service solutions. All coming together to make SD-WAN secure, affordable and flexible.
To fully realise the potential of SD-WAN in the WFH era, cloud proxies and secure web gateways have risen up to provide support. Roughly as old as the SD-WAN market, providers such as Z-Scaler, Cisco, Forcepoint and McAfee have seen an increased demand for these services because they don’t require any hardware and, unlike traditional proxies, are not focused on single applications or narrow traffic categories. These solutions are dynamic and offer immense visibility into the network, managing and routing traffic according to admin policies.
As all the traffic is going through the proxy, regardless of user location, the control is granular. Plus, it allows for the organisation to add on extra features such as phishing detection or deep packet inspection, offering all the benefits of a firewall but based in the cloud. These cloud proxies and secure web gateways used to inhibit performance and introduce latency, but over the past few years they’ve matured significantly and are a solid fit for a market seeking secure and speedy connectivity. These solutions provide networking management and oversight in the right ways, ticking all the right boxes.
To get the most from any SD-WAN investment while supporting remote workers, cloud proxies or gateways are a solid choice. If a company is using a legacy WAN topology like MPLS it can consider skipping SD-Wan and adopting a cloud proxy strategy in its stead. This isn’t to say that SD-WAN is a replaceable asset, but rather that it’s possible for companies with different networking investments and legacy systems to fully realise the potential of WFH without having to redefine their entire network.
Even though SD-WAN is relatively new, and even though WFH may come to a stuttering halt in the future, these investments can add tangible value to the business network over the long term. They offer a solid foundation that will support any organisation in the face of the unexpected. And, as everyone has learned, the unexpected is the one thing we can all expect.