Why Businesses Are Switching to SD-WAN

The Global SD-WAN Takeover

SD-WAN’s rise has been meteoric and it remains one of the fastest-growing technologies within the network infrastructure market. With traditional network solutions failing to meet the needs of modern, decentralised organisations, SD-WAN for your business offers the support, visibility, and reliability that digital environments and cloud-based applications increasingly demand.

According to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report, SD-WAN is projected to grow at a 30.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). We’re already seeing that shift firsthand at Orro, with many customers coming to us in search of a network solution better fit for a hybrid work-from-anywhere world.

Why is SD-WAN So Popular?

Imagine that your business has offices across Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. Some branches may connect via one internet connection, while others use multiple providers. Relying on these disparate connections for critical usage opens any company up to security vulnerabilities and performance issues. In the past, the way to resolve this was to engineer special Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) routers to connect the limbs of the business together.

But here’s the key problem with MPLS: It is incredibly costly. MPLS hikes expenditure everywhere from network equipment and routers to basic capacity. It’s also less reliable (single circuits are risky points of failure) and offers limited bandwidth. This is where SD-WAN for your business becomes a game-changer by decoupling the network hardware from its control mechanism.

The Key Benefits of SD-WAN for Your Business

There are a whole host of reasons that businesses are moving from MPLS to SD-WAN solutions, but ultimately, they boil down to two overarching benefits:

1. More Bandwidth at a Lower Cost

One of the key reasons MPLS found favour in the past was its ability to offer better Quality of Service (QoS) than other internet-based solutions. But for modern applications where bandwidth really matters—like video conferencing and heavy cloud data transfers—MPLS often falls short. SD-WAN for your business has blown MPLS bandwidth out of the water, providing far superior capacity at a much lower cost by utilising various connection types like 4G/5G and NBN alongside or instead of expensive private lines.

2. Vital Network Visibility

There can be a ton of inefficiencies in businesses still using legacy networks, and much of that wastage comes from a lack of visibility. If you don’t know where your traffic is going or what your bandwidth requirements really are, then you’re missing the opportunity to tailor your networking solutions. Visibility is a primary driver for implementing SD-WAN for your business, empowering IT teams with a granular understanding of exactly what is happening across the entire wide area network.

The Impact of Enhanced Connectivity

Organisations that have made the switch report a variety of subsequent benefits. By improving visibility and bandwidth capacity, SD-WAN for your business leads to:

• Increased staff productivity and network user satisfaction.
• Greater flexibility with services, providers, and contracts.
• Enhanced network security through centralised policy management.
• Increased resilience and service assurance.

For more technical details on how these architectures compare, you can explore the Cisco SD-WAN Guide, which details the shift toward software-defined networking at scale.

Getting Onboard with Orro

If your company is looking to join the shift to software-defined technology, Orro can help. We provide the expertise to ensure your SD-WAN for your business is implemented with minimal disruption and maximum efficiency. Our team is always happy to perform a free network assessment to ensure your company has a solution that’s cost-effective, reliable, and secure.