Everything you wanted to know about SD-WAN

Industry analysts such as Gartner predict that SD-WAN is on its way to become the de facto option for WAN refreshment initiatives across industries — especially in markets with more reliable Internet access such as North America, Western Europe and developed regions of Asia-Pacific. As always when new technologies break ground, there are many questions arising from the market. Here are the answers to questions asked during our successful webinar “Future-proof your SD-WAN”, featuring myself and Ray Mota, CEO & Principal Analyst at ACG Research. Watch the full replay here.

Q: Why should an enterprise consider Telia Carrier for their SD-WAN?
A: If you are serious about SD-WAN and having Internet as the underlay, there is only one choice. Telia Carrier is the #1 Internet backbone in the world, carrying 80% of the traffic of the world’s largest content providers. This gives an enormous advantage and by combining this underlay with the SD-WAN solution on top gives a holistic end-to-end solution that is unmatched and a key differentiator.

Q: What considerations should an enterprise have regarding transitioning to SD-WAN?
A: Flexibility, ease of deployment, troubleshooting, maintenance, expansion. Combined with an Internet underlay that is easier to manage than customer’s dedicated MPLS it’s a great solution for Enterprises.

Q: How disruptive is the transition to SD-WAN for any business?
A: It is not disruptive. SD-WAN is a tremendous cost-saving for Enterprises, giving them opportunity to have full control over their applications and performances. The companies don’t need either to hire high-grading network engineers to troubleshoot applications any longer, the service managers can do that themselves with an SD-WAN.

Q: How can an Enterprise keep control of its data and keep it safe and visible when outsourcing their network?
A: With SD-WAN from Telia Carrier, customers get full access and visibility on their data and their infrastructure. That means that there is no hidden data and each customer can tailor the solution to fit their exact needs.

Q: What are the layers of security that are offered in Telia Carrier SD-WAN platform?
A: Viptela’s integrated firewall solution that is enabled is the first security layer. Additionally, through the SD-WAN platform the customer will be able to integrate it into an existing Cisco Umbrella security solution. The underlay security comes from several layers of security internally, from access filtering, whitelisting, to make sure we carry legit traffic only. In addition, we also offer a DDoS solution.

Q: How does Telia Carrier reach and support Enterprises that are outside of Telia Carrier’s network coverage area?
A: Our network interconnects with 400+ certified Layer 2 and Layer 3 providers across the globe. Preferably we would buy access to their Layer 2 or 3 MPLS to get access and be able to cover certain areas where we don’t have network coverage ourselves.

Q: Which technology is underpinning Telia Carrier’s SD-WAN solution?
A: Cisco Viptela.

Q: Does Telia Carrier offer an addition of applications on top of the SD-WAN?
A: It is already in production phase, so we hope to have something in place during middle of 2021.

Bernd Hoogkamp, Head of Product Management