SD-Branch Solutions Are Optimizing SMB Network Management and Security

In 2018, branch office Wide Area Network (WAN) technology has been increasingly moving toward software-defined networking for many reasons: agility, scalability, resiliency and, above all, cost-effectiveness.

The Rise of SD-Branch Solutions

Typically, a managed IT service provider has deployed multiple Customer-Premise Equipment (CPE) devices–router, next-gen firewall, Wi-Fi access points and cellular failover modems–to run a branch location network. The business and Managed Service Provider (MSP) usually have two choices:  overspend on enterprise hardware that goes underutilized, or make do with the risk posed by consumer-grade hardware. In both cases, the branch location network becomes overly complex, difficult and expensive to manage.

Enter SD-Branch, a single integrated hardware platform that supports, routing, security, Wi-Fi and cellular functions that can all be managed centrally via the cloud. Essentially, IT organizations can now rapidly deploy and provision a “branch network-in-a-box” solution for new locations, and enable all branch network locations and security functions with a centralized cloud-based orchestration portal that can be accessed from anywhere.

Simply put, SD-Branch offers clear benefits such as:

• Consolidated and less expensive hardware with a smaller footprint at every branch, thanks to virtualized network function delivery
• Decreased costs in hardware, truck rolls for deployment, service hours for management and carrier-agnostic connectivity
• Increased agility and flexibility due to cloud management and remote service provisioning

Building a Better Branch Represents Growth Opportunity for MSPs

What if you could delight your clients by offering a managed SD-Branch solution that combines security, resiliency and compliance readiness, at a fraction of the typical networking costs, all the while increasing your margins? What if a device installation and configuration on site took hours versus days? What if you could charge per feature instead of per bandwidth? What if you could provision those devices remotely?

Imagine turning on and off features seamlessly at the request of the client.

• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and threat detection? Got it.
• Compliance services? Done.
• Turning off unused LAN and WAN ports? No problem.
• Adjust Quality of Service? Of course!
• Automatic failover? Always on!

These are all prime examples of how the SD-Branch concept consolidates and streamlines the tasks done by an MSP.

Delivering a Better Branch

Delivering managed SD-Branch services can be done without any additional investment or training. While some providers can offer pieces of the solution–Software-Defined Networking in a Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) architecture, unified threat management or cellular failover–Netsurion has developed an SD-Branch solution with MSPs in mind. An array of self-managed, co-managed and fully managed services delivers the flexibility and agility that these businesses want. By combining Netsurion’s SD-Branch, SIEM and compliance-readiness features, MSPs can deliver to their clients a comprehensive mix of services at a cost that makes sense.

No matter how you look at it, MSPs stand to win in this new software-defined network paradigm. By delivering increased value to their clients (more security and agility at a lower cost), while increasing their margins (reduced costs on hardware, increased service revenue), MSPs can take on a multibillion-dollar SD-Branch market that is just maturing.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.