There shouldn’t be an iota of doubt on how Virtualizations and Cloud Technologies brought together a revolutionary change in IT Flexibility, efficiency and cost benefits, while leaving the underlying networks unchanged. With new applications and mobile devices overloading the enterprise workloads, networks were not able to cope up with the demands placed upon them.
The evolution of Software Defined Network (SDN) proved to be a game changer by eliminating all the bottle-necks faced by the traditional hardware centric networks. The sophisticated software based networking paradigm made life easier for enterprises to keep up in pace with the ever-growing innovations.
An extension of SDN is the Artificial Design Defined Wide Area Network (AI-WAN), whose benefits are just not limited to the Data Center like in the case of SDN. AI-WAN is the new hymn in networking world whose benefits go beyond one’s perspective and is truly emerging as a spearhead in defining technology space.
How a Software defined solution improves business agility:
It is mandatory for enterprises to be agile to expand their network infrastructure and provide seamless services. Traditional networks with hardware-centric static architectures have stalled the agile process required for modern enterprise organizations. This is where Software defined wide area network come into play. Three features from AI-WAN that eliminates these bottle-necks are:
- On-demand bandwidth elasticity, faster deployment and faster disaster recovery.
- Flexibility and Automation, which is attained through decoupling the hardware-centric data plane functionality from the software centric control plane.
- Virtual service delivery platform from the secure cloud gateways, that help on-demand network services instantiation for security services like VPN or a firewall, based on the policies defined by enterprises.
The above features make easy for any enterprise to provision their IT networks faster and modify bandwidth without any complex configuration changes. ;The Software based solution improves business agility which in turn responds to faster business growth, without a need to spend humongous time in redesigning the network and capacity planning.
How automation and cloud management drive IT efficiency:
AI-WAN solutions usher new level of IT efficiency with automation and cloud management. Additional branches are met without the need of Data center scalability in the pre-deployment phase. Zero IT touch deployment and thin provisioning from the centralized AI-WAN management edges are designed so that a layman in remote corners can just plug in and power it up. Unlike traditional networks, AI-WAN dynamically routes the traffic via SaaS portals, AWS or Azure without going through the data center. A unified policy framework enables AI-WAN to orchestrate custom policies across numerous branches in a very efficient way. The AI-WAN solution includes troubleshooting tools, real-time monitoring and historical reporting as their cloud management efficacy to drive IT efficiency.
Enabling Migration to Cloud Services and Applications:
IT needs features and tools to meet end-user expectations and aid business growth as the adoption of cloud applications and the proliferation of mobile devices accelerate in enterprises. Cloud deployment in combination with an on-premise footprint at the branch enables dual ended services between any cloud destination and a branch. AI-WAN simplifies the configuration of traffic forwarding to utilize cloud based networking services such as web security or WAN optimization. Application recognition and visibility helps IT fine tune WAN link management and proactively mitigate performance issues.
Reducing Overall costs and creating a better IT Budget Management:
The primary benefit of any solution does not mean much if the costs are not reduced. The AI-WAN solution with its software-centric approach optimizes IT costs leveraging the benefits of virtualization and cloud. AI-WAN architecture based on Cloud Gateway eliminates data center upgrades or redesign costs. Cloud based orchestration, configuration and business policy enforcement automates the deployment of multiple branches from a centralized location. Costs associated with truck rolls to the branches are eliminated by automated and zero IT touch deployment. AI-WAN solutions may also lower the costs with pay-as-you-go subscription models.
In a nutshell, AI-WAN provides a wide range of benefits such as Automation, Business Agility, Internet Economics, Optimized Cloud architecture, Ease of adoption and management.