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SD-WAN is still the shiny object, but that aside – enterprises may have an idea of the ROI it will provide immediately, but what about in the long run? In conjunction with PacketPushers and part of its Virtual Design Clinic, Mark Casey, CEO of Apcela discusses how to increase your SD-WAN ROI. In this webinar, three points are focused on building a cloud-optimized WAN architecture and moving beyond the expected ROI:
1. Map Your App and Users
Where are your users? Where are your applications? What is the flow between your users and applications?
To ensure high performance with your apps, you need to understand where you are going and how to get there. As applications move out of the data center, we don’t know exactly where they are, so it is necessary to map your apps. Once you know where your users and applications are, you can strategically deploy your communications hubs to optimize performance between your users and their cloud environments.
2. Deploy Distributed Communications Hubs
Communications hubs are global, carrier-neutral, colocation data centers with robust marketplaces of services that provide high performance, low latency, low cost with internet peering and direct interconnects to the cloud. They are the best way to optimize connectivity to multiple cloud providers through a single peering point. From them, you can deploy distributed compute and distributed security.
3. Leverage Application-aware Routing and Automation
Once communication hubs are strategically deployed, you can apply an SD-WAN overlay and have something powerful by fully leveraging SD-WAN’s capabilities including:
- Application aware routing
- Enhanced analytics
- Dynamic security policies
- Programmable network
Additionally, Mark discusses future considerations for WAN evolution including the importance of distributed security, AIOps (leveraging automation with smart, real-time policies and configuration) and network automation and orchestration.