Guide | How to Implement SD-WAN for Your Organization | Check Point Software

Guide | How to Implement SD-WAN for Your Organization

Executive Summary

Software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) simplifies the management and operation of a WAN (Wide Area Network) by decoupling or separating the networking hardware from the mechanisms that control the network. In other words, SD-WAN essentially creates a logical overlay on top of physical networks that enables central management or orchestration of the WAN.

Benefits of SD-WAN

With the ability to manage the network via a software overlay, new networking services can be delivered in a fraction of the time that it would take for an on-site technician to do the same work. SD-WAN application performance is monitored for changes in latency, jitter and packet loss. When performance falls below an optimal level, traffic is dynamically routed to another link, ensuring users and applications are always connected.

Types of Connections:
With multiple links to choose from: MPLS, broadband, and wireless, organizations can build higher-performance WANs using lower-cost and commercially available Internet access.

Building Blocks of SD-WAN

  1. Underlay
  2. Network Policy
  3. Cloud Orchestration
  4. Security

These components automate the provisioning, management, operation, and monitoring of the WAN. Organizations define a policy in software for routing apps, mitigating performance problems associated with latency, jitter, or packet loss to give users an optimal experience at the lowest possible operating costs. Ideally, a complete security stack is integrated with networking and delivered either on-prem or as a cloud service.

SD-WAN Use Cases

Types of SD-WAN Steering Behaviors

  1. Local Breakout
    • To control and select the best path for outbound traffic to cloud applications and the Internet.
  2. VPN Overlay
    • To control the best VPN path between VPN peers.
  3. Backhaul
    • To route Internet traffic on VPN spoke sites through the Headquarters over a VPN tunnel.

Traffic Steering Types:

Must-Haves for a Secure SD-WAN Solution

Getting Started with SD-WAN

The next sections provide a high-level overview of how to deploy SD-WAN in your organization, including:

  1. Connecting your environment
  2. Setting up your steering policy
  3. Monitoring your network connections

SD-WAN Deployment Steps

  1. Connect the Overlay to the Cloud Orchestration

    • Create an Infinity Portal Account.
    • Connect to Quantum Smart-1.

  2. Configure the Underlay SD-WAN Circuits

    • Map your physical network interfaces to a common, logical SD-WAN network topology.

  3. Define the Network Policy

    • Determine how to steer network traffic based on source, destination and service objects.

  4. Customize Default Steering Behaviors

    • Ensure traffic dynamically fails over to another link when network performance falls below an optimum service level.

  5. Customize Your Steering SLAs

    • Define SLAs for Dynamic Auto-Steering. Analyze metrics such as latency, jitter, and packet loss to optimize routing based on connection quality.