3 Reasons Why SD-WAN Is Crucial to Your IoT Developments

December 06, 2021

Blog

For people thinking about deploying IoT-enabled assets, it’s essential to have the right network architecture in place to manage the unique connectivity and scalability challenges that IoT presents. There’s no shortcut to success. There must be a secure, easy-to-manage, and cost-effective path to network connectivity. One of the best solutions for IoT initiatives is the SD-WAN.

SD-WAN Provides a Solution

Going by Gartner’s prediction, 5.8 billion automotive and enterprise IoT endpoints were already in use by the end of 2020, indicating a 21% increase from 2019. But basic WAN connectivity might not deliver the security, flexibility, or bandwidth that most IoT developments require.

Fortunately, a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) can help deploy, manage, and secure IoT.

SD-WAN operates at the edge of the already-in-place networks, helping connect remote sites to an enterprise network. As a network overlay, SD-WAN enables these remote locations to consolidate network applications and functions over cheap broadband connections. SD-WAN pricing is also reasonable considering its benefits. 

1. Centralized Management and Visibility

An IoT development exposes people to a high level of risk and complexity that must be controlled effectively. 

Most people probably have several remote locations connecting hundreds if not thousands of IoT devices. Therefore, they must monitor the performance of their dynamic network at all times.

SD-WAN eliminates the need to use multiple interfaces, providing a single-pane-of-glass console that helps users understand what’s going on. To deliver real-time visibility of the network’s performance, SD-WAN eliminates guesswork and streamlines management of the ongoing network.

The centralized cloud-policy administration helps with organizing assets, ensuring network resilience, and executing real-time routing efficiencies. Ultimately, this keeps all things running smoothly by dealing with IoT dynamic traffic flows.

2. Rapid and Agile Deployment of IoT

SD-WAN offers zero-touch provisioning, which automates device connection. This capability also simplifies the management of functions including device security, access control, communications, and networking.

In addition, it’s possible to leverage SD-WAN as a cloud-based service, further simplifying enterprise-wide SD-WAN deployments by eliminating the need for every IT team to manage and maintain its centralized data center (SD-WAN).

The result is a fast execution of the first-time installation. Also, it makes it easy to perform future upgrades because users can achieve all this on a web scale, reducing cost significantly.

3. Reduced IoT Security Risks

Connecting IoT devices to the internet exposes them to several security threats. Lately, there have been multiple incidences of criminals using IoT devices as access points to attack sensitive core networks, which has led to increased scrutiny of IoT security.

But the solution is simple. Users only need to implement SD-WANs that offer unified threat management, covering all security functions, including:

• Web and app filtering
• Anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware software
• Firewalls
• SSL (inspection, decryption, re-encryption) and intrusion detection
• Event management and security information

To help isolate IoT assets so that any attack on them does not comprise the entire entity, people should leverage SD-WAN security zoning capabilities. It helps segment the network, offering more protection to an enterprise.

Final Word

As long as users have the right SD-WAN solution, exploiting IoT opportunities is easy. It eliminates unnecessary costs, complexities, and risks. Therefore, it’s essential to take a strategic approach and understand WAN pricing and connectivity. The result is a faster and secure scaling of IoT developments.