Another key benefit of SD-WAN is that it provides a coherent company experience that goes beyond the confines of a corporate network. While it may not be cost-effective to scale it for businesses with tens of thousands of employees, Townsend says, many small and medium-sized businesses will benefit from the ability to set granular policies, including on traffic optimization and network access, via software tools.
Further, SD-WAN opens the door for organizations to adopt secure access service edge to bolster their network security. SASE, Kerravala says, is the “only way to really effectively scale zero trust” for cybersecurity.
“SASE marries the best of SD-WAN architecture and integrates security into the network fabric,” Townsend says. Instead of focusing on users’ connectivity first and then bolting on security tools such as next-generation firewalls after that, SASE uses zero-trust principles of authenticating users to applications to embed security into the network architecture.
Wi-Fi 6 Delivers a Performance Boost for Remote Workers
Wi-Fi 6 is another networking tool that businesses can use to optimize the performance of employees working remotely. First introduced in 2019, Wi-Fi 6 brings improved connection quality, faster speeds and increased data capacity per cell, as well improved performance for applications such as 4K video streaming, according to Kerravala.
“If you’re doing a lot of video calls and things from home, then Wi-Fi 6 will perform better than Wi-Fi 5,” he says.