CIO OPINION

An SD-WAN leverages less expensive Internet and 5G connections by virtualising and bonding network links , creating secure tunnels from the branch offices to the data centre and to the cloud .

Jacob Chacko , Regional Director – Middle East , Saudi and South Africa , Aruba

The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated Digital Transformation initiatives to offer an improved customer experience and personalised services , all while tackling increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats . More than ever , organisations need flexibility to keep pace with business change , but they are often hindered by a sluggish and rigid network infrastructure . Jacob Chacko , Regional Director – Middle East , Saudi and South Africa , Aruba , a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company , describes five key benefits of implementing an advanced SD- WAN solution and how it can accelerate business growth .

1 . Improve business agility while reducing overall WAN cost expensive MPLS lines . As more bandwidth is required to support increasing connectivity demands , MPLS lines become cost-prohibitive , preventing organisations from fully satisfying their business needs . New MPLS circuits can take up to four months to be provisioned , greatly slowing down the ability to spin up a new branch . This hinders business changes , agility , and flexibility .

An SD-WAN leverages less expensive Internet and 5G connections by virtualising and bonding network links , creating secure tunnels from the branch offices to the data centre and to the cloud .

To connect branch offices to the corporate data centre , organisations have traditionally used

With SD-WAN , organisations can realise the agility needed by the business while reducing costs .

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