In this endeavor, Pearl Meyer’s IT department faced a variety of pressing needs, including updating its WAN edge architecture, diversifying connectivity options for better network redundancy, improving application performance and security, and freeing IT resources to focus on strategic cloud migration.

After investigating a number of SD-WAN edge equipment vendors, Pearl Meyer’s team chose an SD-WAN solution delivered as a fully managed service that also integrated SD-WAN devices with next-generation firewalls including unified threat capabilities. SD-WAN now provides back-up connectivity for all of Pearl Meyer’s offices, leveraging public broadband access where appropriate while also benefiting from 24/7 network security monitoring.

A Buyer’s Guide for Secure SD-WAN

Enterprise decision makers should consider these three questions before investing in a secure SD-WAN architecture:

1. Does your SD-WAN solution include an integrated, next-generation firewall with unified threat management capabilities?
   
   
2. Do you offer secure local Internet breakouts, and if so, how?
   
   
3. Does your SD-WAN include an integrated router and firewall, making it easy to directly and securely route traffic to the Internet without stacking multiple devices at a given location?

It’s critical not to forget about analytics. Buyers should also take a hard look at security analytics, which are sometimes just bolted on as aftermarket components rather than being incorporated into the SD-WAN solution. Within the online portal, most providers will provide you with visibility at the box level onsite but not at the network level itself.

However, partners with security and analytics tools integrated into the solution—truly embedded into the fabric of the software defined network platform—offer the ability to view data from the actual network ports inside the SD-WAN portal. These are key differentiators for those seeking full transparency and the deepest levels of insight into their networks and its data security.

SD-WAN architectures provide enterprises with the ability to efficiently manage large networks, but no network is immune from potential security risks. Therefore, enterprise decision makers must keep security concerns top of mind when choosing partners to help establish and maintain their secure SD-WAN networks.