The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped how Canadians work. In turn, an organization’s network is being placed under greater demands to deliver seamless operations for the business and facilitate an increasingly remote workforce.
In this period of transition, those customers that had already embraced SD-WAN were well-positioned to adapt to the new normal. Having a solution that could easily be scaled up as needs increased became critical for business continuity. Security remains a key focus and there is an ongoing need to reduce potential strain on the network due to more home users than ever before.
For those businesses that have yet to embrace SD-WAN, but recognize the need in today’s environment, this blog is a great place to start. Tim Byers, Senior Sales Engineer at OnX, highlights the top factors to consider when evaluating the benefits of, or when implementing, SD-WAN with a solutions partner.
- Choosing an SD-WAN partner should not mean giving up control
Replacing legacy infrastructure can bring countless roadblocks when attempted without the right support. With increasing pressure on IT departments to enable business outcomes in real-time, organizations often default to selecting an SD-WAN service provider who takes full control of the implementation and management of the project.
The result? Even while these customers may reap the benefits of reduced hardware-delivery expenditures, these companies will be faced with the frustrations of living with a ‘black box’ solution on a long-term basis. In this scenario, there are few opportunities to learn from and adapt your approach over time.
The good news is that there is an option that marries both control and support. Choosing a managed service solution provider allows your team to “co-manage” the environment and help ease you into the new era of your business while preserving your ability to optimize your own operations.
- SD-WAN is the start of a larger innovation conversation
When it comes to networking, one of the most common use cases we see for adopting SD-WAN in Canada is in the retail environment, where organizations typically depend on expensive MPLS to manage network traffic flow between their retail locations and remote workers.
The potential to dramatically reduce bandwidth and transport costs can motivate the adoption of SD-WAN – but there is more to the story. Switching from legacy infrastructure should be treated as an opportunity for innovating the business. For a retailer, that could mean moving legacy data centre applications to cloud services, enabling cloud-based unified communications, simplifying the onboarding of a new location, or offering on-site online ordering for customers who can’t find what they came in for. The pandemic underscores the need to move rapidly and change processes quickly.
- C-suite buy-in is key to success
Success for an SD-WAN deployment can be measured for both IT and the wider business. It is important to bring the leadership team into the conversation early, especially the CIO, to help drive innovation from the top and ensure the value of the project is understood at the most senior levels within the business.
Two of the top rationales for adopting a new technology that resonates with CIOs and line-of-business leaders are saving time and increasing productivity. When it comes to SD-WAN, VeloCloud SD-WAN as a Service enables organizations to shift their time investment into categories that are the most critical to the organization and the most difficult for the organization to achieve.
In light of recent events, maintaining business continuity and security are also top of mind for business leaders across the country. Having a C-suite discussion about ensuring you have the right networking solution in place is both very timely and prudent.
You can learn more about how VMware and OnX are helping Canadian businesses adapt to a changing environment by checking out resources posted on VMware’s Business Continuity Solutions page and on onx.com/coronavirus, and how CBTS and OnX Canada have partnered with VMware to offer the industry-leading VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud solution to customers.
Don’t miss the upcoming VMware Evolve Online Canada on July 15, 2020! Join us to connect with experts, hear Canadian case studies and learn everything you need to know about powering a digital business or government in Canada. Register here.
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