Both companies have determined that it will be difficult to maintain or enhance their existing WAN environment. The system managers of both companies eventually adopted SD-WAN, but let's sort out the points of interest as to why they chose it.

Point 1: Reduce the trouble of setting at the base ... Zero touch provisioning
Pay attention to the "zero touch provisioning function" of a certain SD-WAN product, which eliminates the need to manually perform complicated settings just by starting the equipment installed at the base. Since all devices connected to the WAN are centrally managed, sudden setting changes can be made remotely at once. This feature allows builds that would take months in a traditional WAN environment to be completed in days.

Point 2: Flexible settings for different settings within one WAN ... Segmentation function
The "segmentation function" of SD-WAN makes it easy to create networks with different security requirements on a single WAN without the need for complicated settings or contracting additional lines.

Point 3: Optimization of line maintenance cost ... Active-Active configuration
By configuring the main line and backup line used in SD-WAN with Active-Active, we were able to improve availability and distribute traffic at the same time. Effective use of backup lines and optimization of traffic routes have improved the efficiency of WAN line utilization, leading to cost optimization.

Point 4: Optimizing the communication path for each application
We were able to optimize the route by sending traffic that goes out to the Internet, such as cloud services, directly from the base to the Internet and configuring the network so that expensive MPLS lines are not used. It also helped curb IT capital investment in DC over the medium to long term.

How SD WAN works