When planning a WAN architecture, a common dilemma arises: should it be based on global SD-WAN or MPLS technology? This decision significantly impacts business operations. In recent years, global SD-WAN has garnered increasing attention due to its transparency, better availability, superior performance, and greater operational flexibility.

To compare the pros and cons of global SD-WAN and MPLS, we can focus on three key parameters: cost, security, and performance. While these advantages might not be equally apparent in specific scenarios, understanding them is crucial.

Cost-Effective and Profitable Global SD-WAN Solutions:

In the past, organizations connected remote branches and retail stores to a single data center via a WAN model based on individual MPLS connections. Economically, this approach was highly inefficient compared to global SD-WAN solutions.

Global SD-WAN technology reduces costs by employing distributed private exchange points and traffic control, ensuring secure access to local services. It also provides direct access to cloud and internet resources, making it more cost-effective and profitable than the MPLS connection-to-central-data-center model.

In Terms of Security:

While MPLS does allow organizations to organize secure and managed channels between branch offices and data centers through the backbone network of communication service providers, international SD-WAN cannot provide such a high level of protection. However, MPLS does not allow any analysis of transmitted data. In an MPLS architecture, security tasks are still assigned to the client. Even if traffic passes through an MPLS connection, it must be checked for malicious code or other vulnerabilities. This requires deploying firewalls and adding many security features at least to one connecting node.

Superior Performance of international SD-WAN:

From a performance perspective, MPLS reliably guarantees a fixed throughput rate. However, in today’s highly unpredictable traffic environment, this becomes a limitation. Organizations must lease MPLS connections based on worst-case load scenarios, meaning expensive links remain unused most of the time. Fixed MPLS connections can restrict performance due to the ever-increasing data generated by modern networks and devices.

In contrast, international SD-WAN can identify applications and adjust network bandwidth accordingly. This technology can initiate multiple concurrent connections, providing precise load balancing. It can even add new connections when available bandwidth decreases, ensuring high-demand applications get the required speed and bandwidth.

In the comparison between international SD-WAN and MPLS, a clear understanding of their respective advantages is essential for optimizing enterprise network architecture. If you are considering simplifying your network architecture, consult Ogcloud. We offer personalized services to effectively address your network challenges.