Is SD-WAN better than MPLS?

2024-01-16 07:32:13 SPOTO Club Cisco 784

SD-WAN is a next-level networking technology that can help eliminate all other traditional networking methods in the upcoming days. Its software-defined capabilities allow the organization to scale more productivity by monitoring the same in real-time. However, multiprotocol Label Switching is, previously used traffic links that were fast enough to send the critical traffic from one link to another, bypassing the routers to perform in-depth packet search of the information communicated through the MPLS. MPLS circuits are still essential components in any organization's IT infrastructure like the banks use MPLS to connect their ATM services with their customers. These banks have to lease dedicated links from their regional internet service providers (ISPs) to handle this critical traffic type. However, the MPLS have steep bandwidth costs, too, which means that they require some alternatives which can act as the same communication method at lesser prices. MPLS is commonly used because of its reliability and high performance; however, besides these two advantages, few cons are required to seek MPLS alternatives. These downsides are: 

Cost Issues: The MPLS circuits are designed to provide high connectivity with reliable security, so their costs are relatively high. This makes them more costly than any other network solution because they are priced per bandwidth, and the bandwidth usage is much higher in MPLS than other solutions. 

Geographic Limitations: As mentioned above, the MPLS is the dedicated links leased out from any specific internet service provider (ISP), so they do carry geographic limitations. 

Provisioning Delays: The provisioning of MPLS circuits require a long time, so the organizations can faces delays in communication if they got any sudden increase in their bandwidth usage. 

Centralization: These MPLS circuits use a central communication process to send and receive data over the link. With the upcoming new technologies, MPLS usage is becoming less popular these days. Considering the MPLS downsides and the evolution of solutions based on software-defined technology, the SD-WAN option can be better to choose over the MPLS. SD-WAN might also replace all the traditional technologies used in the networking industry. The Cisco SD-WAN solution aims to provide a cloud-based architect that can be controlled by a user-friendly (GUI) interface. SD-WAN solutions are highly secure, more reliable, and cost-efficient solutions.

Following are the security feature of the Cisco SD-Wan solution:

Enterprise Firewalls Secure Web Gateway DNS layer security & URL filtering Built-in Intrusion prevention system Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) Malware protection

End to end encryption

In short, the SD-WAN can be a better option to be relied upon as compared to the MPLS. However, the MPLS can be augmented with the SD-WAN, which can also be counted as a positive feature of the SD-WAN. Comparing to the SD-WAN, the MPLS can have much steeper bandwidth costs than the SD-WAN solutions. These SD-WAN solutions can help protect any given network from vulnerabilities, whereas the MPLS cannot. Cisco SD-WAN solutions are easy to deploy as they come along with multiple service options to  be included while deploying. Cisco's certified IT professionals handle them. Cisco is a pioneer in networking technology to take exams from their certification prospects to ensure that they possess the critical knowledge required to manage their devices and solutions. Cisco exam dumps and other learning materials can be downloaded from reputed sites if anyone is willing to take the Cisco certification exam. The SPOTO Cisco practice tests are highly resourceful for the Cisco exam's candidates. 

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