Johannesburg, 12 Oct 2021
What’s the key to achieving success in today’s world of hyper-connectivity?
The answer is simple, and it is – simplicity! If you can simplify a solution while increasing efficiency… congratulations, you have won the jackpot! It is no wonder that apps like Google maps have become our go-to solutions. We don’t even think twice before going to a new location these days. Gone are the days when travellers would get lost in the back alleys of cities with a map in hand asking every other stranger where their destination was. Unquestionably, the technology of navigation simplified our lives like never before.
Now put that in the context of today’s world; what are businesses doing right now to save time while increasing productivity – digitisation. Digital migration has undoubtedly leaped over the last few years owing to its enormous benefits. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to state that we now live in an age where children learn to operate an iPad before they even know how to ride a bike. Moreover, the global pandemic ushered in an even speedier roll-out of the digital world. But this digital revolution has introduced its own set of challenges, from compliance to security to bandwidth issues and more. But as we get on with this new reality, the billion-dollar question remains – is there an improvised, game-changing, secure, efficient and hassle-free way of communicating, connecting and conducting operations from any location?
Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) is a revolutionary way of routing traffic on your network that allows companies to syndicate numerous internet lines to upsurge the performance of voice, video and cloud-based applications across single or multiple sites. Liquid’s SD-WAN offering is a multi-vendor solution. It ensures that we can provide our customers a secure and intelligent network that increases application performance, resulting in an enhanced user experience, increased business productivity and reduced IT costs. In short, it is connectivity made simple, no matter where you are – with Liquid’s SD-WAN, you are guaranteed an optimum performance.
An easy way to create network redundancy between data centres, branch offices and remote locations, SD-WAN is like having a single key to several doors, simplifying the deployment of networking services, yet maintaining flexibility and keeping costs on a lower side. The robust architecture has a zero-touch configuration, allowing you to configure a subdivision for a new location or an office entirely from a remote location in a short period, thus sanctioning scalability anywhere at any time. Furthermore, using SD-WAN architecture, IT teams can make changes, block websites, check usage and boost app preference from a bandwidth perspective without needing to be physically present.
One of the chief applications of SD-WAN is the optimisation of traffic on networks that still has a hybrid architecture. Traffic is divided between the corporate network and routed directly to applications delivered through the cloud, such as Office 365. Using this approach, our customers can optimise their traffic flows, redundancy and security by designing the underlay (or the transmission services) with the SD-WAN and application flows.
Liquid provides the total end-to-end solution, including the fibre, microwave, fixed-mobile, or even VSAT as underlay, while splitting the traffic going to cloud versus the corporate network at the source with a distributed internet access design. All controlled and governed by SD-WAN policies.
Do you remember the days when power outages were a constant occurrence Unfortunately, power outages still happen, more often than you may notice, but now we are just more adept at dealing with such situations. Similar in function to that of generators and inverters, SD-WAN can provide end-to-end network resilience as it streamlines network traffic while reducing latency and detects WAN outages in real-time, automatically switching over to working links. In addition, the adoption of SD-WAN infrastructure, unlike the traditional WAN set-up, eliminates that single point of failure that can take the entire network down, thus improving day-to-day operations in several ways without the need for engineers to travel or set up special equipment.
Suppose the above reasons haven’t convinced you about SD-WAN being the super-power needed to survive this age of technology. In that case, the next few lines are worth a read. According to its recent report, Gartner has predicted a 59% compound annual growth rate for SD-WAN through 2021, creating a $1.3 billion market. But, conversely, it predicts a 6.3% yearly decline in branch office routers and a 28.1% annual shrinkage in legacy routers through 2020.
Simply put, SD-WAN is an ideal solution to maximise the bang for your buck! It safeguards mission-critical applications, making them run smoothly, thus providing employees with the best application performance and a fast, responsive user experience. Employees in remote locations can also access and share information and connect with teams across several locations quickly and efficiently without facing network disruptions, meaning employees can finally get off the back of your IT team!
So, if you would like to have this timesaving, revenue multiplying, problem-solving tool in your company’s armoury, all you do is click here.
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