What do we need to set up a SD-WAN?
SD-WAN has been the empire of Enterprise and Corporate. But not anymore. Next Telecom SD-WAN for SMEs opens up all the features and benefits of SD-WAN to Australian SMEs with a very simple SD-WAN deployment model.
Setting up a SD-WAN is really simple and requires 3-4 simple steps. Our SD-WAN devices are delivered ready to deploy and high level IT knowledge is not required to deploy and set up.
1. Choose your SD-WAN Licence
The first item you need to order would be a the SD-WAN licences. The SD-WAN licences come in several flavours but we will keep it very simple here and order a Standard SD-WAN with 100MB Throughput. When you order your SD-WAN licence you are automatically provided with access to the Cloud Orchestrator. The Cloud Orchestrator is the Cloud platform used to manage all of your sites from a single log in.
2. Choose your Edge Device
The edge device takes the place of your traditional router or modem at your site. Its the gateway for your data to access to the Cloud Orchestrator and the Internet. For a SME SD-WAN we recommend the Edge 510 LTE. This has 4 WAN ports and also has an embedded 4G SIM Slot for 4G Failover.
Of course there are many options when it comes to the Edge Devices but we find the Edge 510LTE with 4G failover suits most requirements.
3. Add your Internet Links
We are seeing many SMEs choose to connect 2 X NBN services and a 4G as a cost effective alternative to Fibre. We typically do the NBN links over different carriers for redundancy. When bonded over the SD-WAN, (assuming 100/40 links) we see the throughput burst up to 150Mbps + on download.
A SD-WAN bundle with 2 X NBNs, 4G Failover and a SD-WAN with the Edge 510 LTE device is around $400 per month
What's the benefit of using a SD-WAN over spending the extra money on fibre?
For SMEs we see the primary benefits of Redundancy, Lower costs, Simplicity of deployment and the ability to manage and control (Orchestrate) their entire network from a single cloud log in.
When there is network issue the SD-WAN tales over and routes traffic through the optimal internet link. In the event of an outage or packet loss the SD-WAN will instantly re repute traffic and the user will not have any loss of experience.
