and globalization demands. Cloud-first WANs should offer operational simplicity that features a best-of-breed managed service enabling enterprises to greatly simplify complexity. The cloud-first WAN presents a take on the WAN consumption model by delivering the technology (SD-WAN) and the managed service. Really, it’s like having the best of both worlds.

Cloud-first WANs should offer a multi-cloud-ready architecture, which offers choices to bring any application to any cloud by connecting public cloud providers, software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, and partner clouds—and doing all this while delivering a consistent user experience. It is this capability that is the linchpin of a cloud-first service offering. It is an offering that has the extensibility to connect to any infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) or SaaS provider in any region with little effort. Using this approach, IT should have the flexibility to deploy any application, anywhere, accessible by any employee in any location and at any time.

In short, your WAN should provide the same user experience as those connected to the LAN.

Advantages over DIY SD-WAN

In a post-multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) world, IT planners can ordinarily choose between building or consuming their WAN.

Enterprises that want to do everything themselves typically source technology from a box vendor and then tack on security, cloud, optimization and orchestration components.

This do-it-yourself approach isn’t as simple as it sounds, especially in an era where we’re seeing big gaps in expertise. As a result, enterprises often reach the end of the road due to cost, complexity or timing. In fact, up to 20 percent of DIY deployments end in failure or underperformance.

A few challenges that are associated with the do-it-yourself approach to SD-WAN include:

Forklift upgrades

Do-it-yourself SD-WAN rollouts usually involve hardware changes, inventory management, version control, patching issues and more. Even when SD-WAN is being done as a software upgrade, the performance of legacy hardware deteriorates when additional SD-WAN features are thrown in the mix, which can lead to technical debt, stranded assets and the need to acquire upgraded hardware. 

Security

Implementing consistent security across the edge and cloud (for example, providing the ability to encrypt all traffic) can be difficult because of all the moving parts.

SLAs

SLAs are only as good as they are defined, understood and enforced. Most vendors cannot guarantee an end-to-end SLA because they don’t own enough components in the service delivery value chain. Because of this, traditional SD-WAN box vendors cannot guarantee network SLAs. It can get even more complicated for global deployments or when last-mile circuits are involved. Most vendors offer convoluted SLAs and, because they don’t control them end-to-end, are really unable to offer service uptime. As a result, they offer backend credits with complex calculations, which don’t adequately reflect the business impact of a failed SLA.

Cloud agility

Digital enterprises require an agile environment. Bringing in new cloud applications, kicking out or migrating from legacy applications, and opening and closing branch and satellite offices require changes to the WAN.

Time-to-deployment

Equipment lead times, configuration, testing and contract modifications with multiple last- and middle-mile service providers can significantly delay a rollout.