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THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S
PLAYBOOK
approach to designing a branch office
WAN is to have T1-based access to
a service providers MPLS network at
each branch office plus one or more
high-speed links at each data center.
It is not uncommon in this design
for a company’s Internet traffic to be
backhauled to a data center before
being handed off to the Internet. In
other words, the Internet-bound traffic
transits both the MPLS network and
the Internet access link, adding both
cost and delay.
“The penalties associated with
backhauling Internet traffic are usually
acceptable if the amount of Internet
traffic is relatively light,” write the
Webtorials analysts. “However, the
Internet traffic generated by most com-
panies is large and growing.”
Again, while MPLS provides a
highly stable, high-performance, and
highly scalable means of intercon-
necting multiple data centers and
branch offices, it can be expensive,
and the expense makes the most
sense when applications were largely
hosted in data centers and the Inter-
net could not deliver business-grade
reliability. Today, applications increas-
ingly are offered on-demand, via the
Internet and cloud, and SD-WAN, as
a virtual overlay, adds security and
reliability to lower-cost broadband
connections, say its proponents. One
upshot can be a reduced dependency
on MPLS connections.
That’s not to say SD-WAN elimi-
nates the need for MPLS, at least not
in most cases. What SD-WAN does
do is bond and support multiple WAN
access technologies, such as DSL,
LTE, leased lines, MPLS VPN, etc.
It creates overlay tunnels on top of
available transports links that make
up an organization’s WAN, while edge
devices at customer sites allow IT ad-
ministrators to manage or automate,
via centralized policies, WAN function-
ality, including configuration, provision-
ing and security. Users should also
be able to dynamically set the path
for each application based on their
customer-defined policies.
It’s a benefit that can’t be under-
estimated as hybrid WAN topologies
become the norm. According to one
survey by Forrester, for instance,
54 percent of network and telecom
managers are dealing with four or
more connection technologies within
their networks, from private leased
lines to carrier Ethernet to 4G/LTE
to MPLS to terrestrial fixed wireless.
More than three-quarters of firms
use more than one, so anything that
streamlines management, orchestra-
tion and maintenance could be seen
as a boon.
There is a related business case,
as well. Network managers can push
less-critical, non-real-time data onto less
expensive, best-efforts links, while re-
serving more expensive, dedicated links
for mission-critical and real-time data.
That’s also where MPLS comes in
(or in the case of our mixed topology,
remains in). With MPLS WAN technol-
ogy, users have full control over traffic
engineering. The intelligence in SD-
WAN lies on the edge, via boxes on the
Source: Silver Peak Systems
Per
TeleGeography.com- Broadband vs. MPLS pricing for San Francisco Q4 2014. Median monthly price:
10-20 Mbps Broadband $110/month, 10Mbps MPLS IP VPN + Local Access $2,100 Month.
Source: Telstra
Potential Cost Savings from SD-WAN
Example Managed SD-WAN Solution
Source: Webtorials
What are the primary advantages that would drive
your company to implement an SD-WAN?
Increase flexibility
Reduce OPEX
Improve application performance
Simplify operations
Improve security
Improve availability
Deploy new functionality more quickly
Add bandwidth more quickly
Provide better visibility
Reduce CAPEX
MPLS - 10Mbps
~$2100/Month
MPLS only
~$2,520,000
Hybrid
~$1,200,000
Dual Internet
~$264,000
~$1100/Month
~$220/Month
Up to 90%
reduction
in WAN
costs
Internet 10 Mbps
MPLS - 5Mbps
Internet 10 Mbps
Internet 10 Mbps
Monthly Cost Per Site
Cost Per Year for 100 Sites
OFFICE BRANCH
APPLICATION
TRAFFIC
APPLICATION
ACCELERATION
ROUTER
FIREWALL
INTERNET
IP VPN
DATA CENTER
IP
16%
13%
12%
12%
10%
9%
8%
8%
7%
5%
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16%
Source: Silver Peak Systems
Per
TeleGeography.com- Broadband vs. MPLS pricing for San Francisco Q4 2014. Median monthly price:
10-20 Mbps Broadband $110/month, 10Mbps MPLS IP VPN + Local Access $2,100 Month.
Source: Telstra
Over the next 5 years, hosted VoIP and
UC will be t e segment with the largest
growth in the global VoIP and
unified communications market
$90
$80
$70
$60
$50
$40
$30
Example Managed SD-WAN Solution
Source: Webtorials
What are the primary advantages that would drive
your company to implement an SD-WAN?
ue (US$ Billions)
Increase flexibility
Reduce OPEX
Improve application performance
Simplify operations
Improve security
Improve availability
Deploy new functionality more quickly
Add bandwidth more quickly
Provide better visibility
Reduce CAPEX
MPLS only
~$2,520,000
Hybrid
~$1,200,000
Dual Internet
~$264,000
~$220/Month
MPLS - 5Mbps
Internet 10 Mbps
Internet 10 Mbps
Monthly Cost P
Cost Per Year for 100 Sites
OFFICE BRANCH
APPLICATION
TRAFFIC
APPLICATION
ACCELERATION
ROUTER
FIREWALL
INTERNET
IP VPN
DATA CENTER
IP
16%
13%
12%
12%
10%
9%
8%
8%
7%
5%
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16%
(Continued on page 34)