Background

The networking ecosystem has already witnessed the widespread deployment of SD-WAN topology, and indeed, this software-defined WAN optimization architecture has been one of the most discussed buzzword in the industry. In the current phase, most SD-WAN adopters have deployed their solution either on off-the-shelf devices or an integrated package of hardware and software from leading vendors in the market, or perhaps a managed SD-WAN solution leveraging some degrees of MPLS service. Driven by the technological and economical advantages, the SD-WAN momentum continues to penetrate the market, and recently, there has been an evolution of this virtualized, software-defined WAN architecture, which can be considered as the next phase of SD-WAN.

The success of SD-WAN lies in the use of vCPE (virtualized customer premise equipment). In the past, traditional CPE hardware required trained technicians to conduct maintenance and functional setups, and if the enterprises planned to expand their application or service, they had to procure additional CPEs. All these have accumulated substantial costs for enterprise IT management. Thus, the use of vCPE in SD-WAN has made a huge appeal. The virtualization of open architecture CPE has been an incredible cost-saver.

Driving the Next Phase

In the early phase of SD-WAN, there have been management or deployment models such as Hybrid SD-WAN and Managed SD-WAN. Enterprises may purchase a full-package SD-WAN solution from a leading vendor, and/or still use MPLS services in some degree. In this case, enterprises save some costs in IT investments, but still, there should be higher level of flexibility and scalability if they wish to expand their serviceability. That’s the reason why there is a strong momentum to drive SD-WAN development or evolution into the next phase.

The next phase of SD-WAN is expected to be universal, which indicates lowered dependency on MPLS and grey box vendors. Instead, it is time for white-box CPEs to interoperate with third-party platform software to run SD-WAN. By virtualizing white-box CPEs, the deployment time can be reduced, without the lengthened lead-time from vendor lock-in solutions. In fact, customers enjoy the agility to create their SD-WAN offerings in SaaS (software as a service) or PaaS (platform as a service) management. In short, they are no longer bounded by vendors.

Experts have anticipated that in the next phase of SD-WAN, bulk deployment will be the key phenomenon and there will be a rising emergence of third-party VNFs (virtualized network functions) in the market. In other words, many enterprises, perhaps more from SMEs, would buy bulk white-box CPE to run third-party VNFs to run their URL filtering, SSL, and firewall measures.

Recommended Hardware

As the network landscape is changing in an unexpected pace, it is necessary to have the right hardware to run the core of SD-WAN. For instance, Lanner Electronics Inc. offers a wide range of vCPE and uCPE (universal customer premise equipments) pre-validated by leading SD-WAN vendors in the market, which saves deployment time regarding interoperability with mainstream platform software.