Post Covid-19 the world of business & employees are rethinking the traditional business model and offering employees the opportunity to work from home if not permanently, at least a few days a week. This means that employees who connect from outside the corporate network need reliable and secure connectivity to ensure that their workflow is seamless so they can stay productive.

This can be challenging for businesses, as devices are increasingly dispersed across multiple locations. Cloud-based services, applications and platforms also make it difficult, as employee home networks may struggle to match the flexibility, scalability and speed of implementation needed for daily operations. One of the solutions to these challenges is SD-WAN, an overlay virtual solution for existing and new connectivity at branches. By integrating Software-Defined Networking (SDN) with fixed and mobile connectivity, SD-WAN offers a complete solution to ensure less downtime, reduced latency & faster, more secure connectivity.

In addition, SD-WAN brings intelligence to the network, giving you immediate visibility and control of network traffic and providing a lower-cost alternative to traditional networking whilst helping your network be more application-aware & respond quickly to external security threats.

Here are five key security benefits of SD-WAN:

Security is centralised and scalable

The centralised controller in SD-WAN can set security policies for the entire network. You can create and distribute security policies across the business, which can then be enforced and maintained centrally. The centralised controller allows you to filter and block malicious traffic without affecting the rest of the network’s operations. Suspicious activity can be automatically redirected and reported to the administrators.

You can create, control and deploy security policies at scale as the business changes and grows, or as you provision new applications.

Prioritising traffic from remote locations

SD-WAN can prioritise traffic from your locations, moving voice or video traffic over low-latency, high-bandwidth links (such as MPLS) and using more affordable local internet for less time-critical traffic. Your business can combine a variety of network connection types into your WAN, such as private circuits, mobile networks and any internet connection. This enables you to ensure the connectivity used is appropriate for the data sent.

Light-touch and segmentation

Light-touch provisioning lets you add a new branch or remote location online in minutes. There’s less chance of human error: once a policy is defined or changed, it’s automatically distributed to all devices connected to the SD-WAN. You can define policies that workplace applications can use, such as the CRM system, cloud-based applications like Office 365, or real-time traffic such as Voice over IP (VoIP). You can manage segmentation policies from a single pane of glass and adapt automatically to any network’s changes.

Traffic encryption and firewalls

SD-WAN protects the traffic between locations by connecting them all with a secure tunnel that employs strong encryption. You can deploy virtual firewalls to deal with a malicious threat or malware in real-time, and then turn them off once the threat has been neutralised. You can also use virtual firewalls to restrict access to websites for remote employees and guests.

Connectivity with the cloud

SD-WAN provides seamless and secure direct connectivity to cloud providers and endpoints, optimising the cloud experience. It delivers high levels of security to your business, preventing data loss from unwanted intrusions.

Find out we can help you realise your ambitions with Vodacom Business SD-WAN.