Is the complexity of your MPLS network costing your organization?

Corporate network demands have never been higher. Cloud computing, cybersecurity concerns, hybrid work and the need to connect anytime from anywhere means that enterprise network needs are constantly increasing. And Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) has long been an industry staple to connect and manage network traffic flow between locations. The reasons why it became so are clear: when it was introduced, MPLS offered better performance, improved the user experience with traffic management, and offered the ability to scale as needed.

MPLS differentiated services or packet designations allowed organizations to prioritize types of traffic. However, MPLS was slow to deploy, and updates needed to be carefully managed by the MPLS provider. Complicating the matter is how today’s networks run: Each site’s bandwidth needs can fluctuate dramatically — ebbing and flowing with the use of high-bandwidth activities (like streaming) and the number of users and devices on site that day.

This dynamic environment makes it exceedingly difficult for corporate IT teams to anticipate each location’s needs. The rigid MPLS infrastructure means there is a constant risk of over-or-underutilizing available bandwidth. This risk creates a drain on time, expense, and productivity, which all adds up to inefficiency and cost overruns. 

Beyond the fact that personnel who are familiar with aging and command-based control interfaces for routers are becoming scarce, IT leaders across industries are finding that MPLS-based networks offer certain challenges, including:

Cost: It can be prohibitively expensive for some organizations because an MPLS access circuit is far more costly than a standard internet connection. The MPLS network service also requires an additional fee from the service provider.

Scalability: While MPLS is scalable for both bandwidth and locations, it doesn’t scale quickly or on demand.

Visibility: It is difficult to quickly view network health or gain granular insights regarding network or device performance. 

Complexity: Adjustments to the network, load balancing, traffic shaping or other activities are tedious, with changes affecting the larger WAN requiring significant effort and time, plus opportunity for error.

Efficiency: MPLS networks typically centralize internet access points, creating unnecessary latency and inefficient use of backhaul circuits to a data center for traffic destined for the internet. In a world of increasing cloud computing, this design is incongruent and inefficient. 

In short, IT leaders are feeling pressure to upgrade as their connectivity needs evolve, increase and expand. Fortunately, alternative solutions offer the ability to efficiently manage their network while reducing complexity and costs.

Leveling-up with SD-WAN

SD-WAN is more cost-effective for businesses than MPLS. This is because SD-WAN allows the use of less expensive internet connections, while using advanced technology and routing decisions to deliver performance, reliability and security. MPLS is inherently more expensive due to its reliance on private circuits.

Because it often uses public internet connections, SD-WAN can be perceived as more vulnerable to data breaches than MPLS. However, SD-WAN solutions include standard features such encryption, encapsulation, and perimeter defense through next generation firewalls that apply unified threat management. And because SD-WAN can provide better visibility and control over network traffic, it can enable robust cyberdefense. Traditional MPLS required hand offs to an internet service which then required a separate firewall. If internet access was to be attempted at a branch location, the network managers dealt with one-off firewalls and each had its own control interface, also presenting security concerns.

In some ways, a software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) builds on the idea of MPLS. It offers routing control and traffic prioritization — but uses automation to make it more scalable and affordable.

Unlike MPLS, SD-WAN uses the power and efficiency of the cloud for management control while equally being able to access public clouds, especially when public clouds or applications have access points closer to the client’s location or network interconnect points. (And with 70% of organizations reporting more than half of their infrastructure is in the cloud, cloud adoption is showing no signs of slowing down.)

What’s more, a hybrid WAN connects two separate WANs and can leverage different connectivity options to do so. An SD-WAN can use any internet access available, which supports a full range of high-speed connectivity options and transport types. SD-WANs connecting to private networks afford the hybrid network design that enables companies to leverage very low latency. They also deliver ultra-high security and the predictable performance of private connections with the efficiency of internet-based connections for other locations. This means greater agility to adapt to different workloads and to prioritize traffic in real time.

Additionally, this means organizations can extend their SD-WAN service to quickly add new sites and off-network locations and rapidly upgrade bandwidth. This can be accomplished with no changes necessary to the existing infrastructure or network. SD-WAN requires less customer premise equipment than MPLS. This lowers the initial cost of infrastructure and setup, enables quicker deployment and reduces running costs.

Hybrid SD-WAN to replace MPLS

A hybrid SD-WAN can be used to complement or replace MPLS, depending on the preferred network schema. Some organizations are opting to use Ethernet and SD-WAN to create a hybrid SD-WAN and replace MPLS altogether. In this scenario, each location is connected to the internet and thus the SD-WAN. These organizations can selectively use the Ethernet (less expensive as compared to MPLS) for time-sensitive or critical traffic.

Many of today’s IT leaders recognize a need to optimize their bandwidth and simplify network management — particularly those with multi-site networks. In these applications, the shift toward SD-WAN results in a network that can be more flexible without added complexity and cost.

Is hybrid SD-WAN right for your organization?

So, is hybrid SD-WAN right for your business? Here are some questions to consider: 

• Do locations have fluctuating bandwidth usage, making it difficult to anticipate what each location needs?
• Do you have (or need) primary and secondary connections to prioritize mission-critical applications and re-route less time-sensitive traffic?
• Does your organization need to better support remote work or hybrid work by offering secure, reliable, high-performance connectivity from anywhere?
• Do you need a more cost-effective way to manage your network and streamline operations?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should consider moving to an SD-WAN solution. With solutions available today from Spectrum Enterprise, you can simply, efficiently and cost-effectively apply the right type of connectivity to each location across your entire network. With our network services offerings, we’ll partner with your organization as an extension of your IT department. Together, we’ll design, implement and fully manage, or co-manage network services that fit your needs.