Selecting The Right Managed SD-WAN Service Provider

THE VALUE OF CHOOSING AN SD-WAN MANAGED SERVICE

However, finding the right SD-WAN solution for your business can take time and may not always be the highest business priority, given other digital transformation project priorities. The accelerating pace of technological change within the SD-WAN segment can also lead to confusion. It’s no surprise that many enterprises considering an SD-WAN to simplify their branch WAN deployments are turning to managed service providers to deploy and manage an SD-WAN as a managed service. As I wrote in my previous blog, there is tremendous value in working with a managed service provider for an SD-WAN.

Choosing the right SD-WAN service provider to serve as a trusted partner is vitally important, but can often times prove more difficult than it may seem at first glance. You need to ask yourself: Can the service provider deliver application SLAs? Can they adapt to changing requirements to connect users to premise-based and cloud applications from any branch and wherever the applications may be hosted?

Enterprises must also take into account how managed SD-WAN services will work with their existing services. They must consider if the managed service provider is able to offer other additional WAN services such as WAN optimization or analytics. If that’s not enough, enterprises should also validate if the service provider can offer tiered SD-WAN services to address the varied requirements of their branch sites.

HOW TO CHOOSE A MANAGED SD-WAN SERVICE PROVIDER

So what are the most important criteria for selecting and evaluating a managed SD-WAN service provider? Here are a few important questions to consider when researching and evaluating a managed SD-WAN service:

1. Does the managed SD-WAN service guarantee predictable performance for all of my SaaS and premise-hosted applications over any network underlay (MPLS, broadband or LTE)?
2. Does the managed SD-WAN service optimize connectivity to any cloud service or SaaS application?
3. What type of resiliency and high availability alternatives are available? Does the SD-WAN service offer active-active for any type of network?
4. Does the service provide options for local internet breakout and application traffic steering beyond a core set of applications to also include new and custom applications?
5. Can the managed SD-WAN service be upgraded to provide integrated WAN optimization at any location?
6. Will the SD-WAN service be compatible with and service chain with my existing routers, firewalls and secure web gateways?
7. Does the SD-WAN service pave the way for my organization to simplify branch office infrastructure and reduce the number of components required at each branch?
8. Does the SD-WAN service provide a centralized orchestration console for managing and modifying application QoS, business intent overlays and security policies?

These eight questions should be carefully considered by enterprises that are eager to learn more about SD-WAN alternatives. They may also prove invaluable for service providers that are evaluating SD-WAN vendors and solutions. An SD-WAN provides tremendous business and technological benefits that will help your organization gain a competitive advantage, improve agility and lower costs. It’s not a decision that can be taken lightly. All SD-WANs are not equal so it’s critically important to really understand the nature of the managed service you’ll ultimately use.