Both software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and software-defined access (SD-Access) utilise the software-first approach to IT infrastructure, offering greater customisation, scalability, and automation. Yet, despite common misconception, the two technologies offer wildly different functions. While SD-WAN replaces traditional wide area network (WAN) setups and offers an agile approach to managing your WAN, SD-Access is a powerfully flexible evolution of traditional local area networks (LAN), which are known for being difficult to manage and vulnerable to security issues.
Here, we dive deeper into the difference between SD-WAN and SD-Access and share the advantages and challenges of each. Plus, by offering real-world examples of both technologies, we’ll help you understand how these offerings can genuinely amplify your business, supported by smooth implementation from a trusted network specialist.
The future of networking is SD-WAN
SD-WAN was developed in response to increased cloud adoption. Traditional WAN, which was designed to connect users at branch level to applications hosted in data centres, was unable to cope with the increase in traffic caused by mass cloud usage. This led to increased costs, a poor user experience, security vulnerabilities, and difficulty in management.
Using a software-defined approach addresses these challenges. It unlocks centralised and simplified management, offers a greater level of service predictability, and delivers end-to-end encryption for increased security.
Revolutionising security with SD-Access
Traditionally, managing a LAN involved lots of manual configurations. They are vulnerable, inflexible, and often a barrier to innovation. SD-Access offers a much more simplified and intuitive way of controlling who and what connects to your network. By utilising network segmentation and policy-based automation, where predefined rules control actions, users, devices, and applications at a more granular level. And, thanks to SD-Access’ clear endpoint visibility, each connected device can be monitored and managed remotely.
Comparing the core capabilities of SD-WAN and SD-Access
SD-WAN and SD-Access serve different parts of a network. SD-WAN focuses on connecting different offices, remote users, and cloud services. It prioritises making traffic faster, more reliable, and secure across wide areas. SD-Access, on the other hand, manages the internal network inside offices or campuses. It automates network management, enforces access policies, and improves security to simplify operations and streamline workflow.
Think of SD-WAN like the motorway between locations: a simple, efficient system that allows traffic to move easily and quickly between multiple places. Using the same analogy, SD-Access acts more like the roads inside of a city: it controls how users and devices move safely within the network using systems like traffic lights and one-way routes.
Unlocking the power of SD-WAN
SD-WAN is particularly ideal for mission-critical environments such as healthcare, where there are broad geographical locations, a vast number of providers, and a great need to deliver efficiencies in both frontline patient care and backend support and infrastructure.
It’s also a gamechanging investment for businesses that need more simplified and centralised management in general.. Reducing manual configurations creates cost savings and efficiencies, while automated deployment enhances scalability, and intelligent routing brings security and performance benefits.
And that’s not all. There are many key benefits:
SD-WAN delivers faster connectivity and optimised cloud performance by intelligently finding the most efficient and lowest latency route for traffic, in real time.
Using multiple internet connections increases reliability and decreases downtime.
A centralised management system allows for easier and simpler control of the network and less requirement for manual configuration at individual locations.
SD-WAN offers improved security compared to traditional WANs. With a unified system, security policies and patches can be applied quickly. Many SD-WAN solutions also include integrated security to better protect against threats.
Crucially, implementing SD-WAN into your business requires a full assessment of your current systems. Choosing an expert partner like EDNX to support you through this process is the smart move. This is our bread and butter, so we know that downtime or network disruption is non-negotiable for our clients. That’s why we’ll thoroughly map out and audit your existing environment before designing a bespoke network and developing a robust implementation plan for a successful SD-WAN migration. With strategies such as phased migrations and by deploying new networks alongside existing ones, we mitigate any risks to your business from start to finish.
How SD-Access can transform your network
SD-Access simplifies network management by centralising access controls and automating routine tasks. Security is also enhanced with policies that automatically protect devices and users wherever they connect to the network.
It integrates easily with cloud and IoT technologies, helping your business scale quickly, and keeps critical applications running reliably. SD-Access also gives your organisation the flexibility to adapt to future IT changes and emerging security threats, meaning that your network is always ready for whatever comes next. If your current LAN setup is a complicated mix of legacy systems and workarounds, upgrading to SD-Access will deliver increased productivity and cost savings.
Our engineers have years of SD-Access experience spanning the full network lifecycle, from troubleshooting and assessments to design, deployment, and testing. If you want to explore SD-Access for your business, contact us today.
SD-WAN vs SD-Access: better together for a secure and connected network
Industries like healthcare, finance, retail, government, and manufacturing – where security and compliance are high priorities – are ideal candidates for both SD-Access and SD-WAN. These technologies are complementary, and when used together, create a seamless, intelligent, and highly efficient solution.
For businesses that operate across multiple locations, handle highly sensitive data, and require extremely robust security, implementing SD-WAN and SD-Access should be an obvious choice. With efficient scalability, simplified network management, seamless integration with IoT devices, and optimised connectivity, the business case for introducing these technologies is easy.
Moreover, with fast and secure connectivity to the cloud and between branches and data centres, businesses can unlock financial benefits in the long run.
Challenges to keep in mind
While the benefits are plentiful in terms of agility, efficiency, security, and cost saving, both technologies do carry some risk – if they’re not implemented strategically, that is.
When deploying SD-WAN, ensuring you have robust security in place across the entire network, and not just at the data centre level, needs to be a primary focus. If local firewalls, segmentation, or user authentication aren’t aligned with central policies, this can create weaknesses at branch level that can potentially be exploited.
SD-Acess is highly interconnected, which carries an additional level of risk if breaches occur on connected, third-party platforms. Poor credential management, weak API integrations, or misconfigured role-based access could potentially allow an attacker to alter policies or gain administrative control of the network too.
However, risks in both approaches can be mitigated with strong governance and consistent, identity-based policy enforcement – which should be built into the foundations of your network implementation. This can be done by working with a trusted partner during design and deployment, ensuring no security measure is overlooked and the team working on the network is empowered to keep policies up to date and enforced during the network lifecycle.
