Organizations with several small locations, such as a group of clinics, group homes or senior-living communities, have traditionally connected them to a central office or data center using private circuits or site-to-site VPNs. These links work, but they can be costly, slow to install and hard to change. SD-WAN, short for software-defined wide area network, is a newer approach worth understanding even if you do not adopt it.
A carrier provides a dedicated line between each site and a central location. They offer predictable performance and a service commitment, but they are often expensive and can take weeks or months to install.
Each site's firewall builds an encrypted tunnel across the ordinary internet to headquarters. This is cheaper and quicker, but each tunnel depends on one internet connection and is configured individually.
In both cases, traffic for cloud applications often travels back to headquarters first before heading out to the internet, which adds delay.
SD-WAN uses a device or software at each site, managed from a central console. It treats multiple connections as a pool and chooses the best path for each type of traffic.
Multiple links per site. A site can combine, say, a cable connection and a cellular or fiber backup.
Automatic failover. If one link degrades or fails, traffic moves to another, often without users noticing.
Application-aware routing. Voice calls and critical clinical applications can be given priority over general browsing.
Direct cloud access. Traffic for cloud services can leave the site directly rather than going through headquarters.
Central management. Policies are defined once and applied to all sites, and new sites can be brought online with less hands-on work.
Visibility. Dashboards show link quality and usage at each location.
SD-WAN is most useful when you have:
Many small sites where individual configuration is a burden
Heavy use of cloud applications, including electronic health records hosted off site
Voice over IP or video that needs consistent quality
A need for resilience, where an internet outage at one site is costly
Limited local IT staff, which makes central management attractive
It may be unnecessary for two or three sites with simple needs, where a well-configured pair of firewalls and a backup connection can do the job at lower cost and complexity.
Compare the full cost, including hardware or licensing, the second internet connection at each site, and monthly management fees. Savings from reducing expensive private circuits may be offset by new subscriptions.
SD-WAN moves traffic differently, but you still need firewalling, filtering and encryption. Some products include security features and some do not. Ask exactly what is built in, and whether you will still need separate devices. Make sure administrative access to the central console requires multi-factor authentication, since it controls every site.
If the network carries protected health information, ask the vendor about encryption in transit and whether they will sign a business associate agreement where applicable.
Decide who will monitor the system and respond when a site goes down. A product that is easy to manage still needs someone who owns it.
Understand the term length, what happens to the hardware at the end, and how easily you can add or remove sites.
A pilot at two or three sites is a sensible way to learn. Measure what matters before and after, such as call quality, application responsiveness and the number of outages users noticed. If staff do not feel an improvement, the investment may not be justified.
If you do move, change one site at a time and keep the old link active until the new one has proven itself. Give each site a simple rollback plan, and tell staff in advance when a short interruption is possible.
UnityCare IT can look at your site list, current circuits and applications and tell you whether SD-WAN, a simpler redundant design or just a better backup link makes the most sense for your organization.
An outsourced IT department with proactive maintenance and one number to call.
Call or text: 405-285-3845
New customers: start@unitycareit.com
Existing customers: support@unitycareit.com
Address: UnityCare Technologies, 2524 N Broadway Ste 554, PMB 947974, Edmond, Oklahoma 73034-4172