What to Keep in Mind When Considering Offering SD-WAN-as-a-Service

While software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) is not new, it has gained a lot of attention ever since the work-from-anywhere (WFA) model was imposed on many organizations. From large enterprises to mom-and-pop shops, businesses are adopting SD-WAN because it’s so much easier to implement and manage than fixed MPLS solutions. Its built-in flexibility enables users to access resources regardless of where they have been deployed with advanced WAN remediation & intelligent application steering capabilities.

SD-WAN and SD-WAN managed services allow communications service providers (CSPs), Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to capitalize on this trend by offering a variety of value-added services, including cloud security, LAN services, and multi-cloud networking. And with Secure SD-WAN solutions rooted in security-driven networking principles that converge networking and security into a unified solution, the technology is transforming enterprise networking even further, enabling the consumption and delivery of value-added services across all edges from WAN Edge, LAN Edge, OT Edge, and Cloud Edge.

For providers and users alike, the economic and business benefits that managed SD-WAN delivers are real and are forecast to continue for the foreseeable future. According to the Futuriom 2021 SD-WAN Managed Services Survey, for example, awareness of and demand for SD-WAN technology is still growing. Not only do 90.8% of enterprises expect SD-WAN technology to become part of their strategy to replace alternatives, but 82.5% of those same organizations report an increased awareness of SD-WAN as a managed service. The biggest benefit is that managed SD-WAN is scalable, agile, and resilient, reducing the overhead that is taxing already overburdened IT teams.

Managed SD-WAN grows with your customers

Today’s hyper-distributed, hyper-connected environments require rapid, agile deployment of remote offices and workers without forsaking reliability or security in the process. SD-WAN has been an impactful, dynamic game-changer for service providers, enabling them to provide advanced connectivity services to customers without the skills or resources needed to deploy their own SD-WAN solutions, or who need to allocate those resources elsewhere.

The ability of managed SD-WAN customers to scale at speed enables them to get their remote locations, home offices, and remote users up to speed quickly, leveraging a full range of highly flexible connectivity and security options.

And as those organizations and their networks grow, managed SD-WAN services are able to grow with them. Newly created, vast amounts of endpoints and remote offices and workers demand more flexible networks and as a result, more security. As endpoints and attack surfaces expand, secure SD-WAN continues to expand with all of these opportunities.

The question is, which SD-WAN solution is right for you to adopt as a managed service?

Consistency and integration

One of the biggest issues is a solution’s ability to provide consistent user experience, and consistent security policy enforcement, regardless of edge location or where endpoint devices and applications are located. Security teams are looking for increased cooperation between security functions at each edge and endpoint, and they don’t want separate tools for each one. A managed SD-WAN solution should not just enhance user experience securely, but it should also be easily integrated into existing security architectures to ensure consistent protection end-to-end.

Network and IT managers also express a strong desire for any type of co-management and self-service portals to control and see their networks, regardless of security solutions currently residing in their platforms. They want integrated networking and security platforms, not discrete applications. Managed SD-WAN offerings need to provide tiered management solutions so networking teams can co-manage a solution and even provide their end users with some control over their managed services. The right SD-WAN solution provides a natural place to not only consolidate these functionalities, but integrate them with existing systems deployed in customer networks.

Added value

MSPs and MSSPs can build better value-add offerings when they are based on a strong, integrated SD-WAN foundation. SD-WAN solutions that truly integrate networking and security functionality into a single appliance enable MSPs and MSSPs to offer value-added services such as fully managed enterprise or remote office and teleworker security with minimal added cost. It’s also a convenient way to enable customers to consume network connectivity and value-added services from the cloud. Bundles for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), multi-cloud connectivity, managed SD-Branch, IoT security services, and self-service portals can all be easily added. When looking at value-added services to offer, security is at the top of nearly every organization’s list.

Convergence, enablement, functionality

Is security driving the SD-WAN evolution, or is it the other way around? The convergence of networking and the security stack has been in the works for some time, prompted by the increasing attack surface most organizations are struggling to secure. And it is now fully realized on some Secure SD-WAN solutions, enabling managed SD-WAN platforms to provide the scalable, agile, resilient, and secure services that networking teams are looking for. SD-WAN is a launching point for every network transformation project, but being able to natively integrate security, futureproof with the ability to extend to SD-Branch, multi-cloud connectivity, and other value-added services can make all the difference.

Take a security-driven networking approach to improve user experience and simplify operations at the WAN edge with Fortinet Secure SD-WAN.

This post is sponsored by Fortinet.

Fortinet Inc.