Making changes to a network is not just a simple decision, but a significant investment that should be approached with great care. The decision that an organization makes will have long-lasting consequences, possibly lasting for many years to come.

Currently, it is widely acknowledged that Cisco Meraki is the leading market player in terms of deploying, monitoring, and securing enterprise-scale networks with simplicity, elegance, and efficiency. As businesses worldwide continue to embrace digital transformation to keep pace with market trends and customer needs, However, traditional networks weren’t built to handle the workloads and complexity of this digital transformation.

Fortunately, there are emerging technologies and strategies such as SD-WAN that offer solutions to overcome these challenges.

What does SD-WAN stand for?

SD-WAN is an acronym for Software-Defined Wide Area Network. This technology enables the network to automatically adjust to changing WAN conditions without requiring manual intervention by the network administrator. The "wide area" part of the term refers to the fact that it can connect sites or networks that are not adjacent to each other. The "software-defined" aspect means that the decisions about how traffic is routed between sites are based on pre-defined policies, and the behavior of the network adapts to the condition of the WAN. SD-WAN includes features such as resilience, security, quality of service, and application optimization.

SD-WAN Objectives:

The Meraki SD-WAN system was created with two main goals in mind: Redundancy for critical network services and selecting the best path for VoIP traffic. If a network's redundant uplinks fail, the SD-WAN system can help by choosing the most effective route to the destination in real-time. This is particularly useful for services that require low latency, such as VoIP and video.

Maximize user experience:

Cisco SD-WAN powered by Meraki, provides comprehensive monitoring using sophisticated analytics and machine learning, as well as intelligent path selection to ensure optimal performance for vital business applications regardless of where they are hosted, be it in SaaS, IaaS, or data centers.

Supreme visibility with advanced end-to-end analytics:

Keep track of important elements that affect the way in which employees who work in an office or remotely utilize essential business resources, and promptly determine the underlying reason for any decline in quality.

For more than 10 years, Meraki has been making complicated technology easier to use, and SD-WAN is a simple solution to enable organizations to concentrate on their core objectives. Additionally, it's important to mention that Meraki has been providing SD-WAN since 2016, making it one of the most established and reliable technology platforms in this field.

Meraki SD-WAN is designed to be simple, which gives customers and service providers direct control over its power and flexibility. This means that customers can create or benefit from a network connectivity that is cost-effective, highly available, and responsive to the performance of the underlying links, without requiring additional devices, services, or upgrades.

What are key features of Meraki SD-WAN?

• Centralized management:

Centrally manage consolidated security and SD-WAN infrastructure from an intuitive web GUI or APIs.

• Auto VPN:

Create a secure and optimized SD-WAN fabric between business and private/public multi-cloud locations in three clicks.

• High availability and failover:

Automatic WAN and device redundancy leveraging multiple uplinks, warm spare, and self-healing VPN.

• On-premises security:

Unified threat management, including Layer-7 firewall, advanced malware protection with sandboxing, intrusion prevention, and content filtering.

• Cloud security:

Cisco Umbrella security, including SSL decryption/ inspection, data loss prevention, remote browser isolation, granular app control, file type control, SaaS tenant restrictions, and CASB.

• Advanced QoE analytics:

At-a-glance health and root cause of performance issues for web applications, WAN uplinks (including cellular), and VoIP.

• Integrated cellular and Wi-Fi:

MX appliance models that support wired WAN connectivity with integrated CAT 6 cellular modems and 802.11ac wave 2 Wi-Fi.

• Remote worker connectivity:

Support for remote access with native client VPN, Cisco AnyConnect, and dedicated teleworker devices with Wi-Fi for a complete virtual office experience.

Ctelecoms is dedicated to resolving IT technology issues in Saudi Arabia and assisting companies in achieving their desired business objectives. Whether you require an upgrade to your existing WAN or are interested in implementing a new Wide Area Network connection, Ctelecoms can provide comprehensive support. If you are interested in an Meraki SD-WAN solution, please contact us to request more information.

https://www.ctelecoms.com.sa/L146/Meraki-Solution

Our blog series covers everything you need to know about these powerful cloud-based IT solutions:

• The benefits of using Meraki for network management. 
• Manage all your devices from a single, centralized dashboard using Cisco Meraki.
• Combined Cisco Meraki Dashboard Networks.
• What’s Meraki MX Security and how its features help protect against cyber threats.
• Empower your company's security defense with Cisco Talos. 
• Efficient and Reliable Network Management with Meraki Cloud-Managed Switches. 
• Why Meraki Wireless is the Top Choice for Enterprise-Class Wireless Solutions? 
• Meraki SD-WAN: a comprehensive answer to accessing applications and resources easily, securely, and efficiently from any location. (current blog)
• The role of Meraki in enabling remote work and collaboration.