The Institute of Information Technology of ANAS hosted an online scientific seminar of the Department No. 4 on "Software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN): problems and advantages." Sahib Aliyev, an employee of the Institute, said that the Software-Defined Wide Area Networking program is a WAN architecture allowing users to use any combination of transport services, including MPLS, LTE and broadband Internet services, to securely connect to applications.
According to him, SD-WAN broadband Internet is a special application of network technology applied to WAN connections such as 4G, LTE or MPLS. This is a technique that uses software to make wide area networks easier and more flexible. Business networks, including branches and data centers, are connected to such large geographical distances. Speaking about security issues in SD-WAN technology, the speaker noted that the main advantage of its architecture is reliability. In the SD-WAN architecture, a company takes advantage of end-to-end encryption over the entire network, including the Internet. All devices and endpoints are fully verified with measured key exchange function and software-compatible security. Just as all communication between the head office and branches is secure, communication with cloud is also carried out reliably.
He gave information on the advantages of this technology. He said that SD WAN offers a completely new way to manage a network in many places. In the past, WAN connections were often used in technologies that require special equipment. In contrast, SD-WAN uses the Internet or cloud-based networks. SD-WAN is also able to choose the optimal way using multiple WAN connections (XDSL, MPLS, Cellular and fiber).
“It should be noted that SD-WAN technology has some defaults. In most cases, they only prefer when accessing cloud-based applications. The user's IT department is responsible for planning, design, implementation and maintenance. It is important to have employees who can build and maintain the solution, otherwise costs may increase”, -he said.
He noted that, if the user company has networked, real-time applications (telephone conversations, video conferencing) then MPLS is more preferable. He noted that despite its many advantages, SD-WAN still uses public Internet to connect to sites, and when packets reach the public Internet, it significantly reduces the quality of real-time applications due to delays.
An SD-WAN connection is not available for all companies. Thus, an SD-WAN system that is valid for any organization may not work for another company. SD-WAN connections are not completely secure. It's easier to connect to the cloud, but there's the possibility of packet loss once you're there. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully evaluate all the advantages and disadvantages of this technology, to plan this work with all the subtleties in mind.
At the end, there was an exchange of views on the report, questions were answered.
