What does SD-WAN mean to your manufacturing business?
It provides you with a comprehensive solution that connects multiple clouds, allowing any user to connect to any application, across any cloud. And now, Cisco has launched a new SD-WAN solution with a truly strong focus on security.
Cisco originally introduced SD-WAN because we realized that traditional wide area networks (WANs) could not keep up with the growing influx of data and the addition of new devices. Although traditional IT services were working hard to increase bandwidth and improve connectivity, it became ever more apparent that, for businesses to harness and capitalize on this information, new solutions were needed.
Enter SD-WAN: a cloud-first, software-driven approach that routes traffic, maintains application performance, and adapts to changing conditions – all without direct IT oversight. Using the power of software-defined networking on the WAN businesses can improve performance and reduce costs, while staying secure.
Manufacturers are no strangers to excessive bandwidth demands. Most organizations have multiple locations and juggle hundreds of employees and customers – each producing valuable data, typically feeding back to one headquarters. Under traditional networks, an overabundance of this data on an unreliable connection could cause delays and slow down production, which could result in lost revenue. In fact, it’s estimated that 70 per cent of application outages are tied to networking problems.
Cisco offers a complete, end-to-end intent-based network with an SD-WAN architecture to address simpler WAN management that connects any user to any application, across any cloud, and at scale. SD-WAN can manage multiple types of connections – broadband, LTE or MPLS – to deliver applications in minutes, on any platform, with consistent, predictable performance.
In addition to providing a more flexible and versatile network solution, by simplifying the WAN, there is also the opportunity to lower costs through centralized management, security, policy and visibility. The solution also supports business growth since bandwidth can be added as your network expands, whether you are adding a new satellite office or a new piece of equipment on the factory floor.
Even with so many advantages, many organizations are hesitant to adopt an SD-WAN network because of concerns that security can be compromised when using cloud solutions. At Cisco, we recognize that security is a top priority for our customers, across all industries. Lack of unified, end-to-end security from the branch to multiple clouds does increase risks to organizations, and opening the enterprise to cloud expands the surface of vulnerability points. So providing the right level of network access to the right people at the right points in the network is truly critical.
Cisco’s latest SD-WAN announcement reflects our dedication to making security a key component of all our solutions. The new Cisco SD-WAN security features enable unified security from the user to the cloud, delivering the right security at the right place, simplified. No other SD-WAN solution delivers a comprehensive solution that includes both routing intelligence and threat intelligence in a certified trustworthy architecture.
If you’re still on the fence about adopting SD-WAN – or if you haven’t given it much thought yet – now is a good time to check out the many advantages the technology can bring to your manufacturing business.
Learn more at: Cisco SD-WAN
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