The following post is by Jeremy Rossbach, Chief Technical Evangelist at Broadcom. We thank Broadcom for being a sponsor.
I’ve been preaching the same thing for years: To overcome the challenges of modern network complexity and successfully transform your networks, you need modern network monitoring data. Monitor the user experience and the health of every aspect of network delivery, including those networks you manage and those you don’t. Follow the data and let it guide you. The right data can inform the best path for optimization, now and as the network evolves over time. The data does not lie.
Two-Thirds Cite Unsuccessful SD-WAN deployments
The problem is that many network operations (NetOps) teams lack the data they need right now. That’s because the nature of network connectivity has seen radical, wholesale change. Recent SD-WAN and SASE research found that 98% of respondents are increasing their reliance on the internet for WAN connectivity, citing requirements for network flexibility and cloud connectivity. Makes sense, right? You can’t get to your cloud resources using a direct MPLS connection between a branch office and the data center. Plus, 86% are adding 4G and 5G connectivity to their WAN, and 97% of these respondents now use this network path as the primary connectivity for some sites and applications.
As the reliance on SD-WAN proliferates, so do the challenges. This same research revealed that the top SD-WAN challenges include implementation complexity (26%), product stability (21%), and cloud provider integrations (21%), just to name a few. Given all this, it is no wonder that only 40% said they are satisfied with SD-WAN vendors’ native monitoring tools. Ultimately, only one-third of respondents agreed with the statement, “Our SD-WAN is a complete success.”
Teams with Unified Visibility into the Entire WAN Underlay Report Easier SASE Transitions
Research revealed that 87% of traffic now traverses the internet. However, 67% of NetOps teams cite internet and cloud network paths as monitoring blind spots. This data underscores why there’s the dissatisfaction with SD-WAN monitoring features referenced above.
SD-WAN utilizes the internet and dedicated MPLS to build its encrypted tunnels for network delivery. This breeds environments in which there’s a fundamental lack of visibility. Researchers found that teams encounter several challenges with native SD-WAN monitoring solutions, including a lack of data granularity (32%), limited data retention (30%), lack of security information (28%), and summarized data that doesn’t enable drill downs (26%). These limitations are why almost three-quarters, 73%, of respondents stated that they use third-party vendor tools to monitor SD-WAN.
SD-WAN is not a SASE feature per se. However, SD-WAN is an important component of SASE. A mature SD-WAN foundation is essential to an effective SASE implementation. To be successful, enterprise NetOps teams need solutions that offer the following capabilities:
- End-to-end visibility of the entire network path users rely upon, including across the SD-WAN overlay and underlay, as well as Wi-Fi, ISP, data center, branch, and cloud networks.
- Granular visibility into, and validation of, SD-WAN tunnel performance and routing decisions.
- Improved data quality for intelligent, actionable insights.
Conclusion
In recent years, the nature of networks has changed substantially. Moving forward, the rate of change will only continue to accelerate. To contend with these new, rapidly evolving realities, advanced network monitoring capabilities are a vital requirement. Today, SD-WAN failures equal SASE failures. That’s why it’s vital to track, manage, and improve network delivery across these new, complex architectures. By doing so, teams will be able establish the visibility needed to optimize operations, accelerate SD-WAN and SASE transformation, and enhance the user experience.
Learn more about SD-WAN monitoring from Broadcom here.
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