Some small business owners are unfamiliar with the concept of SD-WAN, which stands for Software-Designed Wide Area Networks. This software approach manages wide-area networks, offers ease of deployment, central manageability and reduced costs, and can improve connectivity to branch offices and the cloud according to NetworkWorld.

 

“It was clear that the market needed to move away from a traditional point-to-point routing market to more of a flexible and agile application delivery-focused connectivity,” Rohit Mehra, vice president of network infrastructure at IDC tells ChannelProNetwork. “That’s what SD-WAN brought to the table, more intelligence in terms of how routing handled applications, more agility in terms of being able to, on the fly, adapt to the application needs and provide a better user experience.”

 

This is a growing market, expected to climb at a 30.8% CAGR worldwide through 2023 to $5.25 billion, according to IDC. Unlike traditional router-based WAN technology, SD-WAN uses multiple connection methods such as MPLS, broadband internet, and 3G/4G to optimize performance and manageability.