Traditional WAN vs SD Wan

A WAN, short for Wide Area Network, is a type of network designed expressly for the purpose of connecting different office locations. Think of it as similar to a virtual system of highways running between cities. Its main purpose is to help important business data travel quickly between places that are geographically far apart.

Traditional WANs use older technology and methods to achieve this, such as private, secure connections that depend heavily on physical devices like routers. In contrast, the modern evolution of the WAN—known as the SD-WAN or Software-Defined WAN—is a smarter, more flexible solution that utilises software instead of hardware to manage and optimise the network. These days, while traditional WANs are still in use in some industries, they’re generally considered less of a good fit for modern work environments than the SD-WAN. 

At Network Edge, the last thing we want is for our clients to settle for antiquated technology, which can only produce suboptimal results. We provide cutting-edge SD-WAN networking solutions that will work harder for you and get you better results than traditional types. It’s likewise important to us that you understand the key differences between the traditional and the SD-WAN, so you have a clear picture of what you’re investing in and why it’s worth it. Let’s now explore how WANs work and the differences between them in more depth:

Understanding the Traditional WAN

Since they were first developed, WANs have been the cornerstone of enterprise networking for businesses of different sizes all over the globe. They were originally designed to connect discrete corporate locations by using common hardware—typically WAN routers—at each location. The main purpose of these routers was to map out the boundaries of the network and to direct all traffic on the network to the appropriate location. 

In the past, traditional WANs were perfectly sufficient for most businesses for the following reasons:

• Centralised Operations - Older companies were accustomed to operating with centralised systems. This means that they hosted all their data, applications, and servers in just one location, like the company’s private data centre or main office. Employees located in remote workspaces or branch locations would simply need to connect back to this central hub to access any resources they needed. 
• Predictable Traffic Patterns - In the past, network traffic generally flowed in a fairly predictable and linear way—that is, from the branch office to the main headquarters and back. 
• Ubiquitous Use of Private Connections - Most companies used private networks like Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) to facilitate connectivity between locations. These were already costly at the time, but they worked well enough since network traffic and usage were fairly predictable.
• Relatively Low Bandwidth Needs - Most businesses at the time didn’t depend on the internet for much more than basic browsing. Traditional WANs were used in their heyday for fairly low-bandwidth purposes, such as file sharing, internal applications, and email, with limited need for bandwidth-heavy applications like cloud-based solutions or videoconferencing platforms. 

The Limitations of the Traditional WAN

Needless to say, the needs of modern businesses have evolved dramatically along with advancing technology, exposing the limitations of traditional WANs in the process. In particular, the following characteristics of traditional WANs render them less effective today:

• Static in Nature - Traditional WANs rely on fixed routes that can’t dynamically adapt to changes in traffic or performance requirements. This makes them inefficient in handling modern, flexible traffic patterns.

• Lacks Cloud Support - Traditional WANs forcibly route traffic through the main data centre, even if the destination is a cloud service. This creates a “trombone effect” that leads to increased latency and slower performance for cloud apps.

• Costly to Scale - Scaling traditional WANs requires expensive private connections. If your business is continuously growing or adding more remote users, then you’ll rapidly find a traditional WAN an impractical investment.

These limitations eventually gave rise to the development of the SD-WAN, which we’ll explore in more depth below. 

How the SD-WAN Differs from Its Traditional Counterpart

As mentioned above, the main operational difference between the SD-WAN and the traditional WAN is that the former depends on software rather than hardware to direct data traffic. Traditional WAN routers had to be configured manually at each location to determine how data could move from one place to another. An SD-WAN controls the network through specialised software, which is more adaptable than hardware. You can change the network settings whenever you need to and expect these changes to be reflected in real time, at every site, without having to touch any physical devices.

Beyond this main difference, a few other significant differences between the two types of WAN include:

• Connection Types - Traditional WANs depend on private connections like MPLS, which are both expensive and difficult to scale. An SD-WAN can connect to many different types of networks, including 4G/5G, broadband internet, and MPLS, and automatically select the best connection for what it needs to do. 
• Traffic Routing - As opposed to traditional WANs, which route all traffic through a central headquarters regardless of its destination, an SD-WAN sends data along the shortest path possible to get to where it needs to go. 
• Cloud and Remote Work Support - The traditional WAN was designed for businesses with centralised operations and thus doesn’t work well in the cloud-heavy work environments that you’ll find at many businesses today. The SD-WAN, on the other hand, is built to work in the cloud and provides effective support for remote workers with secure connections.

Why You Should Switch to an SD-WAN

By virtue of their more modern construction and features, SD-WANs are the natural choice for modern businesses in need of an innovative, high-performing enterprise networking solution. If you haven’t already been convinced of the value of investing in an SD-WAN, then here’s a detailed breakdown of the benefits your business can expect from doing so:

• Reduced Costs – An SD-WAN is not limited to private connections to function; it has the option of using cheaper public networks without compromising either security or performance.
• Better Performance - It can prioritise more important apps, such as video calling platforms, over less important functions like background file downloads.
• Simplified Management - Since you have control over the central software, changes and updates are much easier.
• Greater Flexibility and Scalability - An SD-WAN is dynamic. You can easily add new locations, adjust settings, or scale the network as your business grows. This saves you time and makes it easier to adapt to major companywide changes, such as switching to remote work or opening new offices.

Now that you know why and how an SD-WAN can serve your company better than traditional alternatives, why settle for anything less than the best partner for implementing your new network? Get in touch with us at Network Edge today and we’ll help you design, build, and manage the ideal WAN for your organisation.