From Single Location Businesses to Enterprise “Branch of One”: How SD-WAN is Evolving to Address More Needs

In today’s work-from-anywhere environment, companies of all sizes need to ensure every place of business, whether a home office or a branch location, is supported with fast, reliable, and secure connectivity. Evolutions in networking technologies are easing the burdens of putting secure connectivity anywhere, enabling what has become known as the “branch of one” or the “SD-Branch.”

SD-WAN for Branch Offices and Remote Workers

Traditionally, connecting a branch office to the corporate network was a rather involved process requiring specialized equipment. The Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) changed that, making it easy for a branch office to have simple, virtualized network connectivity alongside firewalls, routing, optimization capabilities, and direct connections to cloud services. Think of it as the secure, software-defined branch.

What is SD-Branch?

SD-Branch is an SD-WAN-based strategy that allows enterprises to minimize IT infrastructure at a branch office and automate operations, helping to reduce costs while also improving application performance. SD-Branch solutions replace the standard IT branch office hardware stack with software, using SD-WAN as a single platform to address all branch network needs with the ease of a unified dashboard or centralized controller.

SD-WAN for Remote Workers — Whether at Home or Mobile

Sometimes called SD-Remote, SD-Mobile, SD-Home, or On-the-Go solutions, these offerings take many of the same branch network and security functions and make them available for an individual user in virtually any location. It allows remote employees to have their work laptop, cell phone, and personal devices all seamlessly connected to the corporate WAN via their home Internet, while other internet users in the home are segmented and use only their home Internet service.

SD-WAN for Single Location Businesses

Businesses don’t need multiple locations or branch offices to make SD-WAN a smart choice. By securely connecting remote workers over home and public Internet, small and single location businesses can realize many of the same security and network management benefits larger organizations are seeing, all while providing an office-like experience for high-value employees.

For a closer look at how SD-WAN is evolving to address more needs, and how SD-WAN from Comcast Business can benefit your customers, read the full article on the Comcast Business Community.