Use of the internet in corporate WANs is quickly growing. And for good reason.
Not only are internet services such as DIA and broadband cheaper than MPLS, many of the SaaS applications and cloud services that enterprises have adopted have been optimized to work over local internet connections rather than through central internet breakouts.
In addition, SD-WAN has emerged as a tool that allows WAN managers to incorporate these lower cost internet services into their network without sacrificing performance or security. But not every network site (or enterprise customer) is a good fit for an all internet WAN.
In our next two scenarios, we take an approach that we see many enterprises taking—designating network sites into tiers and assigning different network services to each tier. This allows companies to add in local internet breakouts at most offices, but keep some MPLS at higher priority sites that need service level assurances.
Before we dive in, if you didn’t read our original post that outlines our baseline network, make sure you go back and take a look. The following analysis will make a lot more sense if you do.
One of the biggest takeaways from our recent WAN Manager Survey update—in which we partnered with SG Analytics to survey an even larger pool of IT infrastructure professionals around the world? A large majority of WAN managers have or are in the process of moving to a hybrid network approach.
A large majority of WAN managers have or are in the process of moving to a hybrid network approach.
A few of our other key findings:
So where are each of these services being deployed across the WAN?
Respondents to this version of our survey indicated much greater parity between product bandwidth usage than in previous editions.
Based on all of this new intelligence, our tiered WAN scenarios model what integrating all three of these services across the WAN can do to network costs.
Let’s dive in.
Our first tiered scenario takes a conservative approach to integrating internet services and SD-WAN into the WAN. We’ve made the following changes to our original network:
The figure below maps out the number of sites now running each of our three services.
The resulting network has a global average of 403 Mbps available per site. That’s an increase of 64% over our original dual MPLS network.
So what does integrating internet into the WAN do to our total cost of ownership?
The figure below breaks down the original network scenario TCO (far left column) and compares it to our conservative tiered network with two SD-WAN overlay options: basic managed SD-WAN and premium managed SD-WAN, which includes some additional networking monitoring and security services.
The cost of our conservative tiered network with basic managed SD-WAN is $5,751,609. That’s 8% or $490,299 less than our original MPLS network annually.
Opting for a premium managed SD-WAN service increased the cost of the network overlay by $28,717 annually, but still resulted in a 7% savings compared to our original MPLS network.
But what if, similar to our WAN Manager Survey respondents, you are ready to integrate more internet into the network?
Our next scenario takes a less conservative approach to the tiered site network model. In this scenario, we’ve made the following changes:
Comparing the figure below to our conservative tiered approach, you can see the big jump in the amount of broadband connections (represented by the red columns) as well as DIA (in the turquoise columns).
This tiered network has an average global site capacity of 435 Mbps, compared to 246 Mbps in our original dual MPLS network, or a 77% increase.
Taking a less conservative approach unsurprisingly leads to additional savings.
The TCO of our regular tiered network with basic managed and premium managed SD-WAN were 39% and 38% cheaper than the original MPLS network. The increase in the cost of our network overlay when opting for a premium managed SD-WAN service was slightly more in this scenario—a jump of $72,387 in SD-WAN costs annually.
Let’s take a closer look at how the two approaches to a tiered network impact our TCO.
Using a basic managed SD-WAN service for each, you can see that while both provide network savings, opting to integrate a larger amount of broadband and DIA into the network dramatically drops the total cost of the network.
The annual TCO for our regular tiered approach was 34% less than the conservative tiered approach.
The key takeaway from these two scenarios is that it is possible for customers to retain some MPLS in their network and still save money, particularly if they integrate it alongside more cost-effective DIA and broadband services.
It is possible for customers to retain some MPLS in their network and still save money, particularly if they integrate it alongside more cost-effective DIA and broadband services.
This provides a “best of both worlds” scenario of maintaining performance and security assurances at sites where it matters most while also utilizing more cloud application friendly, cheaper internet services.
In our next installment of this series, we’ll look at integrating private line transport into an internet first WAN to see how connecting our data center sites can impact network costs.
Up Next: BYOB (Bring Your Own Backbone) Internet WAN
Good news!
This series is now an e-book.
Download your free copy to explore all five of our hypothetical scenarios in one place.