Shortage of Specialists?

The SD-WAN market is growing rapidly and has become the preferred solution for the site networking of multinational companies. This is due to the increasing demands of cloud usage, data analytics and mobile, decentralized ways of working, including securing local internet access.

Your IT team has two options to meet these requirements:

• Do-it-yourself (DIY) SD-WAN, where you and your group handle day-to-day network operations, security threats, company compliance, adding new technologies and managing service upgrades for all your sites in-house.

• Managed SD-WAN Provider, an external, expert service provider takes care of your network design, connectivity and site security, providing your team with tools and applications to meet security requirements and simplify network management.

When IT decision-makers research new technologies, the opinions of their peers often carry more weight than recommendations from vendors and industry experts. Today, the majority of existing SD-WAN implementations are DIY, at 63%. However, in a survey conducted by the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, 82% of those who currently manage their SD-WAN themselves say that they would opt for a managed SD-WAN today.

According to the survey, this change of heart is based on the challenges the companies have experienced and on conversations with IT managers from other companies that have already implemented a managed SD-WAN. Sounds a bit strange, since SD-WAN technologies are sold in part for the ease of management and the higher level of automation they offer. But SD-WAN can be very complex and requires a high level of expertise to manage in order to maximize business benefits.

A key advantage of SD-WAN is the integration of local internet access points at every location in order to access cloud applications directly. This means that all routers in the network must be protected against attacks from the internet by firewalls. Unlike in the classic network, all lines are permanently active in the SD-WAN - backup lines are therefore not only used in the event of a fault.

The configuration of which line is preferred for which application can be complex. Mechanisms such as "Quality of Service" (QoS), "Quality of Experience" (QoE), application-based routing and WAN acceleration require regular adaptation to the actual data traffic.

In addition, SD-WAN manufacturers usually update their software on a quarterly basis - to close security gaps and expand functions. The management interface may also change in the process.

The operation of an SD-WAN network requires trained, often certified specialist personnel and good IT technicians are rare and expensive. A service provider with its own Network Operation Center (NOC) benefits from economies of scale: It operates numerous company networks, employs many experts who undergo continuous training and is usually in direct contact with the SD-WAN manufacturer.

Central management consoles and reporting are standard for all SD-WAN manufacturers. However, terms such as "zero-touch provisioning" or "change-by-click" do not automatically mean "simple". Setting up new routers requires complex templates that need to be customized - depending on the location, access technology and bandwidth. This is not comparable to plug & play at home. Although all network parameters can be changed via the central platform, incorrect entries by inexperienced technicians can paralyze the entire network.

The responsible IT managers quickly realize that the migration to the cloud, mobile and home office workstations and local Internet access cannot be managed by a central firewall alone. The leading analyst firm Gartner has introduced the term Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) for this purpose, which all manufacturers of security solutions are now measured against. Modern SD-WAN architectures comply with the SASE concept, but require specialist personnel to respond to breaches of company guidelines or security attacks. Here too, the question arises as to whether a service provider that has to deal with attacks at a large number of customers on a daily basis can protect the network more efficiently.