It's time for South African enterprises to switch to SD-WAN

Many enterprises in South Africa and across the globe are accelerating their digital transformation by switching to software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). Although SD-WAN was created as a flexible solution to inter-branch connectivity, it does so much more nowadays.

It combines connectivity and security to deliver a second-to-none user experience that improves productivity, efficiency and collaboration for enterprises and their teams, no matter where they are located. Newer SD-WAN solutions provide flexible and scalable access to cloud environments and regional data centres, which is critical in the age of remote working and our reliance on technology for business processes.

Leveraging this smart networking technology allows enterprises to build more adaptive, responsive, reliable and secure networks that can scale up as the business grows. SEACOM Business offers SD-WAN solutions for large corporations and small businesses in South Africa. This technology will ensure that your business remains effective in a rapidly evolving digital world.

What does SD-WAN do for your business?

Our SD-WAN solutions offer centralised control and management of your business network, which improves traffic monitoring and routing between business branches and data centres or the cloud. It improves the agility of a company, as well as the user experience, which is important for employee satisfaction and motivation.

This improves the overall business productivity and efficiency. SD-WAN is relatively easy to configure for enterprises and the bandwidth can be scaled up in no time, so if an enterprise opens a new branch, those employees can be given immediate access to the network with no additional infrastructure.

When it comes to network security, SD-WAN offers superior protection against cyber attacks through automated monitoring and mitigation techniques. It can help to prevent malware, spyware, ransomware and various other cyber threats from compromising the business network. End-to-end encryption of network data further enhances the cyber security of SD-WAN.

Lastly, SD-WAN is more cost-effective to deploy and run than traditional networking models, such as those based on MPLS or VPNs. It does not have to replace an existing network, rather it can be added on, which minimises setup costs and improves the overall control of the network.

SD-WAN integration for hybrid environments

Most businesses use on-site servers, the cloud or a combination of the two for their networks. SD-WAN is perfectly suited to a hybrid environment as it can natively and seamlessly integrate with various network environments - whether physical servers or the cloud. In addition, it’s fully compatible with cloud service providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

This allows enterprises to maintain secure, always-on connectivity to applications and services running on a physical, virtual or hybrid environment. SD-WAN prioritises critical traffic to minimise delays and downtime, while also routing this traffic across the most efficient connections available. This improves hybrid networking for businesses that are slowly undergoing digital changes.

SD-WAN is vital for network transformation

New-age networks need to be fast, reliable, secure and always available. This is the driving force behind digital transformation and the reason for constant upgrades and innovations. Legacy networking technologies are fast becoming flawed or even obsolete. SD-WAN can play a central role in an enterprise’s digital acceleration goals.

It allows large companies to maintain central control and visibility of their entire network, whether it’s on-premise, virtual or a hybrid setup. It’s a future-forward networking technology that combines security, reliability and efficiency into one easy to manage solution for enterprises. For more information or to get a quote for our SD-WAN services, email us at marketing@seacom.com or leave us a message.

SEACOM owns Africa’s most extensive network of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, including subsea cables and secure internet connections. We offer a diverse range of flexible, scalable and high-quality solutions for businesses that meet world-class standards for connectivity.

SEACOM is privately owned and operated, making it agile and adaptable to the needs of the customer. This makes us the preferred ICT and internet connectivity partner for African businesses and peripheral service providers. We can guarantee high-speed, low-latency and secure internet connections to corporates and small enterprises.

For‌ ‌more‌ ‌information‌ ‌on‌ our internet and voice solutions, ‌follow‌ ‌us‌ ‌on‌ ‌‌LinkedIn‌,‌ ‌‌Facebook‌ ‌or‌ ‌‌Twitter.‌ ‌Keep‌ ‌an‌ ‌eye‌ ‌on‌ ‌our‌ ‌‌news‌ ‌section‌‌ ‌for‌ ‌insightful‌ ‌articles‌ and relevant news stories on African ICT, internet connectivity and our leading cloud and security solutions.

Need internet for your home? Our subsidiary, WonderNet, brings fast and cost-effective broadband internet to all Africans with a fibre-to-the-home offering.