Choosing an SD-WAN for Secure WAN Edge Transformation: 7 Requisite Capabilities

While software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WANs) offer major performance and convenience advantages over the traditional WAN, these benefits come at the expense of centralized security from backhauling traffic through the organization’s main data center. In addition, with wireless WAN (i.e., LTE/5G) connectivity on the rise, improper integration and management with SD-WAN can lead to added complexity.

Vulnerabilities associated with an expanding branch network attack surface, increasing infrastructure complexity, and a rapidly evolving threat landscape call for security-driven networking—namely, deep integration between networking, including wireless WAN, and security capabilities at a platform level. This deep integration protects both the LAN and all WAN connectivity including wireless WAN. Effective SD-WAN also requires sophisticated, unified management and orchestration capabilities for automatically selecting the best network paths including LTE/5G based on contextual factors such as the specific application in use, business priorities, and security risks.