SD-WAN: Avoiding Costly Pitfalls When Ordering Broadband for Critical Underlay Networks

Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) has emerged as a powerful tool to deliver the capacity and agility needed for today’s complex, diverse enterprise networks.

However, SD-WAN is only as good as the underlying network that provides the connectivity access required to unify its site-to-site communications. And today, high-bandwidth broadband provides enterprises with the high-performance voice, video and data connectivity they need, as well as an alternative to costly multiprotocol label switching (MPLS).

Consequently, the growth of SD-WAN is fueling increased demand for high-speed broadband.

Unfortunately, there's no standardized method for purchasing wholesale broadband. Each supplier has their own method of selling broadband that's different from other suppliers. The result is an extremely inefficient and time-consuming sourcing and ordering process.

Historically, there's been a lack of cooperation between traditional telecom providers and MSOs (cable providers). This has perpetuated additional challenges when ordering broadband between carriers.