Liberty Living
Focus Group manages a hosted phone system for this busy accommodation provider, to ensure seamless communication.
What are the benefits of SD-WAN?
Having a network that lags behind is like running a marathon in flip-flops—frustrating, inefficient, and likely to end in disaster. That’s where SD-WAN comes in.
Gone are the days of clunky, expensive networking solutions like MPLS that require constant maintenance and drain your IT budget. SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Networking) is the smarter, faster, and more flexible way to connect your business locations, cloud applications, and remote teams—all while boosting security and cutting costs.
But what exactly makes SD-WAN such a game-changer? In this guide, we’ll break down the top SD-WAN benefits, compare the benefits of SD-WAN over MPLS, and show how different industries—from retail to finance—can leverage it to supercharge their connectivity.
What is SD-WAN? (a quick recap)
Before we dive into the good stuff, let’s do a quick refresher. SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) is a modern networking solution that intelligently routes traffic across multiple connections, ensuring fast, secure, and efficient data flow. Unlike traditional networks that rely heavily on expensive, rigid infrastructure (we’re looking at you, MPLS), SD-WAN gives businesses the flexibility to use broadband, LTE, and other internet connections to optimise performance.
In short, it’s a smarter, more cost-effective way to connect your business locations and cloud applications—without the headaches. (For a full overview, you can read our blog here)
So what makes it so good?
Better Performance
Prioritises critical applications and dynamically routes traffic for a smooth, uninterrupted experience. Say goodbye to glitchy video calls and lagging cloud apps and say hello to reliable cross site connectivity!
Cost Savings
One of the biggest benefits of SD-WAN over MPLS is its ability to replace expensive private circuits with more affordable broadband and LTE connections—without sacrificing reliability.
Enhanced Security
Built-in encryption, firewalls, and Zero Trust policies ensure that your data stays protected across all locations and while files are being trasnfered between devices. Because no one wants cybercriminals crashing the party.
Seamless Cloud Connectivity
Direct cloud access means faster, more efficient use of Software as a services (SaaS) applications like Microsoft 365, AWS, and Google Drive.
Simplified Network Management
Centralised control means IT teams can monitor and configure everything remotely—no more site-to-site troubleshooting marathons.
Scalability
Expanding? No problem. SD-WAN grows with your business, making it easy to add new locations without overhauling your entire network.
So what makes it so good?
Multi-Site Enterprises
For businesses with multiple offices, SD-WAN is like a dream come true. It connects all locations through a unified, cloud-friendly network, ensuring seamless communication and data sharing. Plus, it cuts costs by allowing the use of broadband instead of pricey MPLS circuits. More savings, fewer IT headaches.
Retail & Hospitality
Retailers and hotels rely on stable, secure connections for everything from point-of-sale (POS) systems to guest WiFi. SD-WAN benefits these businesses by providing better uptime, improved security, and the ability to prioritise critical transactions over non-essential traffic (sorry, guest streaming services).
Healthcare Organisations
With patient records moving to the cloud and telemedicine on the rise, hospitals and clinics need reliable, secure connectivity. SD-WAN ensures HIPAA-compliant security, low-latency connections for video consultations, and seamless access to cloud-based medical applications. Better care, faster service.
Manufacturing & Logistics
Factories and distribution centers rely on real-time data for inventory tracking, automation, and IoT devices. SD-WAN optimises connectivity between remote sites, ensuring smooth operations without costly delays. No more "network down" halting production lines!
Financial Services
Banks, insurance companies, and financial firms handle massive amounts of sensitive data daily. The benefits of SD-WAN here include high-level encryption, traffic segmentation, and compliance-friendly security—because financial fraud isn’t on anyone’s wishlist.
Remote & Hybrid Workforces
With teams spread across different locations (and coffee shops), SD-WAN ensures remote workers get fast, secure access to company resources—without relying on outdated VPN setups. It’s the best way to keep productivity high and frustration levels low.
Why SD-WAN is the future
From cost savings and better performance to enhanced security and seamless cloud access, the benefits of SD-WAN are hard to ignore. Whether you're a global enterprise, a growing retailer, a healthcare provider, or a remote workforce powerhouse, SD-WAN gives you the tools to stay connected, secure, and future-ready.
And if you're still stuck with MPLS, maybe it's time to upgrade—because SD-WAN does everything better, faster, and (most importantly) cheaper.
Brewers
Brewers, with over 150 retail locations, streamlined its network services in order to provide an enhanced customer experience.
Sussex County Cricket Club
While the team focus on their performance on the pitch, Focus Group focus on providing essential technology services to the club.
Frequently asked questions
What is SD-WAN?
SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) is a network management solution that uses software to control connectivity, management, and services between data centres, remote branches, and cloud instances.
By detaching network hardware from its control mechanism, SD-WAN simplifies the management and operation of a WAN. Ultimately, SD-WAN enhances performance, reduces costs, and increases flexibility by enabling dynamic path selection and centralised control over network traffic.
What is SD-WAN used for?
Legacy WAN connections are complicated, expensive to maintain, offer low bandwidth, and can be painful to change, in turn halting innovation and growth. SD-WAN is the answer and puts you in control - making it possible to leverage cutting-edge network technologies and easily manage services over a multi-site network.
What does SD-WAN replace?
At Focus Group, we’ll help you plot your path to software-defined ‘everything’ – connecting physical locations, public and private networks, plus cloud environments to enable optimal digital flexibility to your organisational infrastructure.
Our SD-WAN expertise covers traffic control and security, dynamic multi-path optimisation and routing, load balancing and traffic prioritisation, secure cloud and branch-to-branch connectivity, automation and orchestration, end-user-experience monitoring and virtualised security.
What are the key benefits of SD-WAN?
SD-WAN allows companies to build higher-performance WANs using lower-cost and commercially available internet access. It enables businesses to partially or wholly replace more expensive, private WAN connection technologies such as MPLS.
What is Cisco SD-WAN?
Cisco SD-WAN is a highly secure, cloud-scale architecture that is open, programmable and scalable, with integrated capabilities for multi-cloud, security, unified communications and application optimisation – built on a SASE foundation. It’s used to connect data centres, branches, campuses and colocation facilities to improve network speed, security and efficiency.
What is the difference between SDN and SD-WAN?
The main difference between a software-defined network (SDN) and SD-WAN is how they are used. While SDNs address the modern networking needs of managing local area networks (LANs) or operator-managed networks, SD-WANs are used to connect geographically distributed locations and remote users.
How reliable is SD-WAN?
SD-WAN has proven to be a flexible, robust and reliable alternative to traditional private network connections. A Cisco SD-WAN doesn't require a backhaul to a data centre, which allows branch offices to connect more easily to the internet. This translates into better performance, lower latency and higher-performing connectivity. In addition to this, business IT support services will constantly monitor for faults in the network, rectifying any issues before they occur.
How is SD-WAN different from a VPN?
SD-WAN and VPN both provide secure connections, but SD-WAN offers more advanced features. SD-WAN uses software-defined technology for dynamic path selection, centralised management, and enhanced performance across multiple locations. It optimises traffic and reduces latency. In contrast, VPNs primarily create secure point-to-point connections over the internet without the advanced traffic management and optimisation capabilities an SD-WAN provides.
What are the benefits of API-driven SD-WAN?
Unlike traditional router-centric WAN architectures, SD-WAN is designed to fully support applications hosted in on-premises data centres, public or private clouds and SaaS services such as Salesforce.com and Microsoft 365. In a nutshell, SD-WAN delivers the highest levels of application performance and better quality of experience for users. Plus, organisations can instantly deploy the right security in the right place, all from a single dashboard, protecting end users from a multitude of security threats, while safeguarding the business against data exfiltration and insider threats.
What is SD-WAN architecture?
SD-WAN architecture allows businesses to leverage any combination of services – including MPLS, LTE and broadband internet services – to securely connect users to applications. The technology centralises network control, creating a network overlay that enables IT to remotely configure, manage, monitor and secure most aspects of the WAN including edge devices and traffic flows.
Do I need a firewall with SD-WAN?
While SD-WAN optimises and manages network traffic, a firewall provides critical protection against cyber threats by monitoring and controlling incoming and outgoing network traffic based on security rules. Integrating a firewall with SD-WAN ensures comprehensive security, combining optimised performance with robust threat protection and compliance.
