This blog was originally published to the 128 Technology website – in 2020, Juniper Networks acquired 128 Technology. Learn more about the acquisition here.
Service providers and enterprises are deploying SD-WAN and moving applications to the public cloud. Here are 7 factors to consider when deploying SD-WAN and cloud solutions:
Total Network-Wide SD-WAN Software Expense:
Traditional routers are hardware based and therefore there is a tendency to focus on hardware expenses. Next-generation routers are virtual, making software as the dominant expense.
Many SD-WAN deployments use redundant edge devices for High Availability (HA) designs. Teams evaluating solutions must determine the total software costs for the entire network, including software that is running in redundant routers.
Selective Encryption Is Critical:
Legacy IPsec tunnels encrypt all traffic regardless of whether it is TLS encrypted at the application level. Because only 10–15% of network traffic needs to be encrypted at the network level, it is important to be able to selectively encrypt traffic at the right encryption level for each network session.
Cost of Network Bandwidth to Public Cloud Data Centers:
When enterprises are deploying public cloud applications it is important to consider the cost of data transfer in and out of the cloud. Although public cloud providers such as AWS and Azure have low prices for virtual machines, the price of data transfer is high. For network-intensive applications this can be a significant expense. Quantifying these expenses is an important step in estimating the total cost of running applications in the cloud.
Scalability of Endpoint Connections:
Tunnel-free IP routers can connect to an unlimited number of endpoints, which have allowed the Internet to scale to a massive size. However, most SD-WAN devices use IPSEC, GRE and/or VXLAN tunnels with tunnel termination limitations to create a private overlay network on top of the underlying IP transport network. It is important to consider your scalability needs when evaluating the best architecture for your SD-WAN deployment.
Operational Expenses:
Network OpEx is a significant expense and includes service fulfillment activities (truck rolls, configuration, and provisioning), engineering and planning, and service assurance (help desk, fault management, performance management and security management). Consider the expenses from management tasks associated with managing SD-WAN ACLs and tunnels when evaluating your SD-WAN options.
Network Reliability and Availability:
When designing and building any network, reliability and availability are key considerations. Different products and architectures should be compared in the context of network service availability.
Security:
Network security is a key consideration for any SD-WAN and public cloud network. The strengths and weaknesses of each vendor and network design should be carefully considered when planning an SDWAN deployment.
To explore these considerations, along with the benefits of network-wide SD-WAN pricing, read our analyst white paper, “The Economic Benefits of Session Smart Routing in SD-WAN and Cloud Networks”.
