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What are the three steps to be performed before deploying SD-WAN? in response to this question, this article describes in detail the corresponding analysis and solutions, hoping to help more partners who want to solve this problem to find a simpler and easier way.

As enterprises develop network strategies and technology roadmaps, one of the hot technologies is SD-WAN, which is an important network transformation solution and a major change in the status quo of MPLS deployed by most enterprises.

Although we are optimistic about SD-WAN, we recommend that any enterprise considering adopting it take some initial steps to minimize the disruption and costs associated with traditional network switching.

Evaluate your current network

First, determine your current network condition and how you use it. Complete application assessment and endpoint analysis to determine whether there are a large number of small branches, large offices, or combinations.

Managed service or internal service?

Second, consider what type of SD-WAN solution makes sense for your business. Do you want managed services or DIY unmanaged solutions? Consider your geographical location. This will affect which and how many "last mile" bandwidth providers you need to implement the solution.

View current WAN contracts

Third, it is important to determine your obligations to existing network service providers before submitting SD-WAN business use cases. If you do not fully assess the impact of your commitments and potential responsibilities on your current provider, you may encounter problems or costs (for example, early termination or shortages from existing providers) and plan to transition to SD-WAN.

Based on overly optimistic cost-saving models (based on replacing most MPLS circuits with cheaper internet circuits), it is not uncommon for companies to be eager to migrate to SD-WAN. In many cases, they don't realize that they can't just dismantle MPLS circuits with their current suppliers without incurring huge early termination costs.

It is not enough to compare the monthly MPLS cost with the monthly Internet access cost; you also need to know the contract with the current MPLS service provider and determine if you have a separate term commitment to the existing circuit. These individual term commitments can be 12 months, 24 months, or even 36 months, and require customers to pay up to 100% of the monthly recurring fee termination fee for early withdrawal. In some cases, it depends on how many chips you have when negotiating the contract, because you have to reimburse the waived installation fees and other fees, so your commitment may be more. This can quickly become expensive and destroy your overly optimistic cost-saving model.

Your old contract may also contain overall annual or term revenue commitments for all services, and if your SD-WAN migration reduces your expenses, you still need to meet these commitments, forcing you to purchase additional services from the supplier to make up for the differences or to pay for the shortfall. In addition, there may be other components in your existing deal that may prevent you or make changes to you without significant cost. Some examples may include discounts, credits or exemptions based on total expenditure for all services or specific services, and disconnect order requirements, which may lead to continuous overlapping billing of circuits that you think have been disconnected, but the supplier refuses based on technology.

In short, it is important to grasp current obligations and incorporate them into the SD-WAN transformation timing and cost model. Even if you are switching to the SD-WAN solution provided by your current service provider, this is all true. Companies tend to rely too much on so-called technology conversion terms, which may rule out the transfer to different services or technologies to the same provider if mobility reduces the provider's revenue.

With the SD-WAN solution, you may need fewer customer edge routers in your network, so it is important to check your value-added reseller contract to understand the payment obligations for devices you no longer need. You also need to ask if your VAR is related to the SD-WAN solution provider of your choice, which can reduce some of your costs.

Important: be sure to check your contractual obligations to existing network service providers and value-added resellers before you start using SD-WAN solutions. While your SD-WAN business case may indicate that you need less MPLS network traffic and do not need expensive routers, you may still have revenue commitments related to your traditional network and hardware, which may offset some of the savings you rely on.

This is the answer to the question about what are the three steps to be performed before deploying SD-WAN. I hope the above content can be of some help to you. If you still have a lot of doubts to be solved, you can follow the industry information channel for more related knowledge.

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