How SD-WAN is powering the post-Covid workforce
What opportunities does SD-WAN present? And why is this technology in demand? Asks Digital Space's chief digital officer Paul Farrelly
Over the last 18 months or so, the single and biggest impact on the network has been people moving from an office to a remote working environment.
This means millions of organisations - and their workforce - now need to access resources and data any time, any place and from any device. Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) is an ideal solution for not only driving this change by supporting migration to the cloud, but also in providing an additional layer of security at individual device level.
With a "zero trust layer", SD-WAN ensures all individuals have to pass authentication, which means organisations can minimalise the risk of security breaches as staff work remotely or divide their time between the office and home - something conventional networks and datacentres aren't able to accommodate.
Therefore, as the vast percentage of organisations maintain a hybrid working model post-pandemic, SD-WAN will continue to offer an ideal solution and will experience increased demand as a result.
What sectors need SD-WAN solutions?
Essentially, every single industry sector has been impacted by the current pandemic, and would, therefore, need and benefit from SD-WAN solutions. However, the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors have experienced the greatest impact, not only in forced closures, but in how they have had to adapt their operations to safely re-open their doors.
The network has always been perceived as a "by-product" to the retail, leisure and hospitality industry, in either powering electronic point of sale (EPOS) solutions or providing WiFi to retain customer loyalty. However, since the outbreak of Covid-19, technology and connectivity solutions have never been so important to those industries, where SD-WAN is now powering handheld "order and pay" devices to enable hotels, bars, and restaurants to adhere to Government demands of table service, whilst helping to improve customer experience for the retail industry.
In addition, as SD-WAN streamlines high data usage and stops applications from overwhelming the network, it has and will continue to play a pivotal role within the healthcare sector - not only in powering initial, virtual GP appointments but also in providing medical professionals with secure 24/7 access to vital data for improved patient outcomes.
What innovations are coming in 2021 and beyond?
I think Internet of Things (IoT) will see significant growth during 2021 and beyond, as industry sectors UK-wide start to explore, understand and experience the value of IoT driven data and analytics for saving costs, enhancing operational efficiencies, and improving outcomes.
For example, IoT is starting to have a big impact within the healthcare industry, where wearable IoT devices are now providing medical professionals with access to more data than ever before, while saving the cost and resource of face-to-face tests and consultations by monitoring health statistics such as blood pressure and fitness levels.
In addition, healthcare providers are also starting to explore the use of IoT for tracking costly medical equipment in real-time, enabling providers to analyse their deployment and when, where, and how often they are used across multiple healthcare sites.
Aside from preventing loss of equipment through either theft or misplacement, healthcare providers can also implement an effective Planned Preventative Maintenance strategy to reduce equipment failures whilst saving time, cost, and resource.
Paul Farrelly is chief digital product officer at Digital Space (formerly Timico).