INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Mobile Technology
SDN redefines
networking environment
Joshua Ward, Associate Client
Partner at Decision Inc, says
because of the infrastructure
challenges in Africa the biggest
potential for SDN in the coming
year is to link it with 5G.
Many consider Software-Defined
Networking (SDN) to be one
of the most disruptive areas to
have arrived in the ICT landscape in recent
years. It fundamentally changes network
management to enable a more dynamic,
software-driven and efficient way of
improving performance.
Within the South African market, there has
been a continued drive towards the cloud
with numerous companies adopting a
hybrid strategy. In turn, this has led to an
increase in demand for reliable bandwidth
from network providers. For their part, these
providers have increased investments in
their infrastructure to scale according to
customer needs. From an ISP perspective,
the focus has been on investing in burstable
bandwidth network capabilities across their
core infrastructure.
And given how 5G is around the corner,
the infrastructure overhaul will play a
significant role in the SDN market not only
in this country but across the continent.
5G will allow sectors that have traditionally
struggled with access to high-speed and
reliable connectivity at remote operations
such as mining and agriculture to start
benefitting from SDN.
But how does SDN impact the network on a
more functional level?
Most network requirements are built
around three metrics – quality, low cost and
Joshua Ward, Associate Client Partner at
Decision Inc
bandwidth. Traditionally, businesses were
forced into choosing two of the three, i.e.
a quality (reliable) network featuring high
bandwidth capabilities would come at a
high cost.
The advent of low-cost broadband,
especially within the African market, enables
businesses to adopt a hybrid approach
of using SD-WAN on certain sites on the
network while keeping the more robust MPLS
network on critical sites. This lets clients
benefit from increased bandwidth, higher
network availability, at a more manageable
cost. Those organisations not adopting SDN
will continue to battle with trying to choose
two of the three metrics.
Implementing SDN is not without its own
challenges especially in Africa.
Typically, finding quality base connectivity
is a problem. Clients also need to match
this with their site or business requirements.
The allure of implementing SD-WAN to
increase bandwidth and reduce costs using
broadband, often means clients are exposed
to the unstable nature of broadband.
Therefore, large head office sites should
typically look at a hybrid approach of
dedicated Internet access or MPLS as well
as a secondary medium to avoid contention
waves during peak periods.
SD-WAN can deliver the goods when site
requirements are appropriately matched
with the correct underlay services. An
example of this is a satellite site with a few
employees who need to connect back to the
network. In this instance, a self-provisioning
SD-WAN device, accompanied by a
broadband medium, would allow for a low
cost, quick deployment and safe means to
connect to the network.
Because of the infrastructure challenges
in Africa, the biggest potential for SDN in
the coming year is to link it with 5G. SDN
devices could run over a 5G network so
businesses could quickly deploy these to
their branches or sites in a short amount of
time. This means they would no longer be
restricted by long time frames to get physical
infrastructure in place. •
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