Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are two technologies that are increasingly accessed by enterprises to improve the customer experience, drive agility and flexibility objectives, and reduce costs. While it may seem that one of these technologies is pushing the success of the other, the reality is that they are complementary approaches.
There are several ways in which SD-WAN and IoT make a good pair:
Traffic management: It’s not only IoT, equipped with sensors that collect data, that are putting heavy loads on the network, it’s also traffic moving in and out of the cloud and mobile devices. SD-WAN helps address all of these issues by allowing business policy to be automatically set to prioritize traffic based on how critical the data transmission is.
For instance, a video conference would be prioritized to a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) pathway, whereas an email could be transmitted on a less-expensive pathway because it doesn’t require a real-time connection. Network management can set these business policies, and the network will also choose the next-best pathway for any interruptions in a particular option so that mission-critical data will always be prioritized.
Segmentation for security: While the segmentation of network traffic may not have first been designed to handle SD-WAN and IoT together, it does have an inherent safety check for devices. The ability to segment traffic means that if a breach or threat is detected, IoT is already segmented and protects the rest of the network from being compromised.
This is particularly important because of the nature of many IoT devices. They are often mobile devices, and a loss or theft could potentially be devastating to the network.
Support for a connected experience: IoT contributes to the customer experience, embedding sensors in all types of devices to make security at a concert seem non-invasive and allow heart patients to use a wearable device rather than come in for frequent screenings. The infrastructure support for those capabilities is the networking solution that SD-WAN provides.
The centralized control and visibility that SD-WAN offers ensure that when Gate A at the concert is much more congested than Gate B, network administrators are able to make adjustments to create a satisfactory customer experience. It means that when the heart patient’s data is coming in on a pathway that’s congested, it’s rerouted so that the doctor doesn’t miss a reading that demonstrates an anomaly and indicates a check-in might be necessary.
SD-WAN and IoT are advancing together as they equip companies for more streamlined business processes. Giving them the ability to efficiently gather and transmit the data that creates a better customer experience. For more information about using SD-WAN to support your IoT initiatives, contact us at SimpleWAN.
