Vodafone SD-WAN – An Enterprise Network Critical to Digital Transformation

Vodafone Ireland has recently launched its SD-WAN solution for Irish businesses. To take a deeper look into what that is and to find out how companies can benefit, we spoke to Vodafone’s Juliana Melim, Fixed Connectivity senior product manager to find out more.

Can you explain for our readers what Vodafone’s SD-WAN is?

SD-WAN, or software-defined wide area network, is the newest capability in the world of WAN, designed to address the new challenges that businesses are facing by embracing digital transformation. The explosion of mobile devices, mobile apps and data utilization are part of the trend that requires businesses to innovate in processes and technology. Unfortunately, IT infrastructures aren’t always fit for a cloud-centric world where speed, scalability and high-performing applications are a must.

Powered by Cisco Meraki technology, Vodafone SD-WAN – allows a fast and agile network that steers customer’s connectivity over MPLS, internet, mobile or a combination of all three to effectively route traffic to remote locations such as branch offices. Vodafone SD-WAN gives businesses rapid access to cloud applications and services, and just as importantly, it’s a secure and resilient solution that is ready for anything. This enables customers to focus on what matters to their business and innovate with confidence.

Why the need for SD-WAN?

There are 3 areas that are driving the need for businesses to look at solutions such as  SD-WAN:

1. The volume of Business Data

Many traditional networks are struggling with the sheer volume of data running through them.

Unfortunately, that’s not about to change any time soon. Traffic is expected to rise by 20% in the next 12 months, with the ever-increasing demand for cloud services, video streaming and business digitalisation.

2. Security: new capabilities, new vulnerabilities 

New devices, apps and services open up a world of possibilities for businesses – and for hackers. And whether they target businesses directly, or their ever-growing number of end-points, they are only as secure as the network that connects them. And, of course, the network itself is always a target.

With Vodafone SD-WAN, businesses can quickly enable security features at locations that currently don’t have one.

3. The always-on experience 

It’s not easy delivering modern customer experiences on a legacy network infrastructure. People expect 24/7/365 access to digital services, and if a business’s network can’t deliver they’re likely to go elsewhere.

The reality is, every minute of network downtime means lost revenue and, potentially, lost customers (not to mention a damaged reputation). Vodafone SD-WAN minimises that risk. It’s the always-on network for an always-on experience.

What are the main benefits businesses can expect by utilising this service?

Vodafone SD-WAN enables businesses to manage all applications, devices, firewalls and bandwidth usage through a single and simple to use portal. It was built and designed to help streamline and improve the administrator user experience and to significantly reduce the time it takes to isolate network or application problems that lie beyond the local area network.

The service intelligently optimises network performance over the best available mechanism in the network to meet the demand, whether through the multiprotocol label (MPLS), internet, mobile or a combination of all three. Connectivity can move from broadband to 4G freely, allowing seamless operations for all applications.

This increases application performance, resulting in enhanced user experience, increased business productivity and reduced costs for IT.

Vodafone knows that network outages are a leading cause of downtime, so redundant network connections are required to minimize disruptions. Typically traditional WAN’s offer an active-passive redundancy which brings extra costs to businesses, as the majority of the time only one connection is in use, while Vodafone SD-WAN offers an active-active scenario that allows traffic to be routed over a variety of different connections. This not only improves the bandwidth and reliability of WAN connectivity but also enables active-active redundancy.

What are the triggers and motivations to move to SD-WAN?

Businesses have different levels of knowledge, maturity and readiness for SD-WAN. Many have hybrid WANs, using different networking products for different scenarios – creating an inefficient patchwork of solutions.

Some early adopters have started deploying SD-WANs as overlays – enabling them to get full network visibility and cut costs by reducing their reliance on MPLS connectivity and IT specialists.

Most business owners will be aware of the opportunities open to them and the challenges their organisations face. But they may be less aware of the strategies and technology that can help them solve their specific problems.

As this will be a new service to many, what is Vodafone doing to help businesses understand the possible benefits?

The transitioning to SD-WAN is simple and fully supported by Vodafone in order to deliver the agile network businesses need. We understand that some businesses may feel tied to their existing WAN infrastructure; however, they can make the move to SD-WAN at their own pace, in a way that is right for them.

We offer a number of transition paths including site refresh and interworking between – MPLS and SD-WAN with integrated project management.

If companies have offices abroad or if their staff regularly travel, can this system be deployed internationally across your network?

Vodafone offers a portfolio of SD-WAN solutions that covers not only businesses with sites in Ireland but also businesses with a global presence. Ryanair is a perfect example of a global Vodafone SD-WAN deployment.

So, the answer is yes. We will be working with local or global businesses to understand which SD-WAN solution will better fit their needs.

Who are your target market for this/ are there certain industries this is more suited to?

The Vodafone SD-WAN solution was developed to support and simplify the move of medium to large businesses to cloud-based applications and technologies. Because of the software element, SD-WAN deployments can benefit a huge number of industries like retail organizations, banking, financial services and manufacturing.

All of these verticals rely on distributed networks tied to centralized data centres to control their IT operations. SD-WAN will allow them to simplify network operations, easily and quickly deploy internet-based connectivity in disperse sites and benefit from a high bandwidth, low cost, reliable, secure and fast networks.

Switching to an SD-WAN will be a big decision for most businesses. Why should they choose Vodafone to deploy this for them?

Our incredibly broad portfolio means we can act as a customer’s single, expert and trusted provider for all of their connectivity needs.

While SD-WAN is already in-market for Ireland from smaller providers, they may still need to lease their network access. We can manage the customer’s entire end-to-end service needs.

We offer greater flexibility at a lower cost for deployment and service updates. Provisioning times can be reduced significantly, while businesses have full control and visibility of their network through the self-serve portal.

Vodafone SD-WAN interworks with existing Vodafone IP-VPN networks, easing the transition.

Our Professional Services are designed to offer the resources needed to assess businesses connectivity solutions from planning through migration to service management.

How can companies find out more?

Companies that are interested in knowing more about Vodafone SD-WAN can visit the Vodafone Ireland website:

https://n.vodafone.ie/business/products-and-solutions/internet-and-networks/sd-wan.html