SD-WAN-based networking solutions are a form of software-defined networking (SDN). This abstract architecture allows operators to:
- Manage the network for multiple locations centrally.
- Create and include new locations more easily, as an SD-WAN-based network is often much easier to provision than traditional solutions.
- With this emerging technology, it is possible to carry out semi-private transport, secure local access, connection to the public cloud, and private and secure signal transport.
Managed service providers and IT departments use the SD-WAN orchestrator to interact with, manage, and administer the network, very easily. More specifically, they interact with it, which enforces the policies defined by corporate leaders and offers more effective visibility into multinational and multi-operator networks.
It is easier to address problems in a network from a centralized support and management point than to wait or have to rely on the response of large operators, something that is not usually immediate.
The situation of Remote Working in Covid-19
The current situation that the COVID_19 pandemic has brought us into has also brought with it the large-scale implementation of remote working. Many organizations did not size their firewall based on the number of users who might have to connect remotely, thus facing serious scalability issues. Fortunately, some vendors provide high scalability for VPN connections by not limiting or licensing the number of VPN connections. But connecting telecommuters is only half the challenge organizations face. SD-WAN: Advantages and challenges in times of remote working.
How can SD-WAN Solutions help?
The main advantage of extending SD-WAN functionality to single connections, especially super users, is that not only can they enjoy remote access on-demand, but they also have dynamically scalable performance regardless of their local network availability can also be obtained. In these moments, our workers can perform their work quickly and efficiently, when the SD-WAN function takes more importance as a differential element.
SD-WAN Solutions: A Contribution to Remote Working
Technologies such as SD-WAN can provide a solvent technical solution to companies and their employees in the new business paradigm of remote working or flexible work.
The adoption by a growing number of companies, of responsible policies with their employees, translates into actions such as:
- Labor flexibility.
- Telecommuting.
- Social or cultural benefits.
- Reconciliation measures allow them to reconcile their performance with their family responsibilities.
At this point along the way, it is necessary to implement tools that solve the main problems associated with flexible work:
- The security of corporate information.
In this first case, in which the company allows an employee to carry out their work, not at home, but in any location, companies can provide their employees with VPN security software solutions, based on IPSec standards, which allow a secure connection between the employee’s location and corporate information systems. This type of solution is ideal for flexible work or mobile employees in need of secure remote access to sensitive company data.
- The ability to provide the employee with communications infrastructure at home (depending on the telework modality)
In this second case, remote working, the employee decides to physically and permanently move away from the company headquarters (usually to his home) and the company incorporates elements of connectivity necessary for the performance of his work.
Faced with this scenario, companies are increasingly opting for the implementation of transparent solutions for their employees, such as SD-WAN solutions, valid for both corporate headquarters and remote users. In this way, the company can provide a fast, robust, and secure end-to-end deployment solution, totally transparent for the employee, and with a user experience identical to that of working within the company’s network.
On the other hand, working from outside the office is becoming a trend. SD-WAN has the elements to become the ideal solution for this type of remote access in companies since the orchestrated and template-based policy approach of SD-WAN solutions can be perfectly applied to the mobile connection.
Remote working thus turns out to be one of the most effective ways of conciliation and brings numerous benefits to the company, employees, and society as a whole. Also, thanks to the use of the tunnels that connect the gateways with the core of the network, all intersecting communications are secured and the security standards applicable to the network are homogenized.
Infinity Labs India has recently developed firewall and SD-WAN products. This software-based product provides flexibility that expands with your business to solve a growing array of networking and security challenges across cloud computing and mobility.