Why should State CIOs be actively exploring SD-WAN solutions for State Government?  Ten years ago, the focus of most CIOs was on server virtualization. And, over the past decade, many of us have actively pursued on-premise and/or public cloud-based strategies.

Certainly, both private and public cloud infrastructure initiatives are well documented in the Public Sector.  For those who’ve managed on-premise server environments, the concepts of Software Defined Network (SDN) and Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) should be familiar. Virtualization of the data center network is key to achieving fully automated server provisioning and, ultimately, the promise of increased agility, self-service, DevOps, etc.

Less familiar, however, is the concept of Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN). Relatively new on the scene, SD-WAN takes those same software-defined data center concepts and applies them to the wide area network.

What benefit does this provide for State and Local CIOs, IT managers, and CFOs? How about Better, Cheaper, Faster for starters? As state governments shift more of their services and workloads to the cloud, pressure on the WAN infrastructure grows exponentially.  Unfortunately, reliable, efficient, wide area connectivity doesn’t come cheap when you apply 20th century thinking to the problem.

Today, forward thinking CIOs are finding that
SD-WAN can dramatically reduce costs while,
at the same time, providing guaranteed
network  availability, greatly
improved network  visibility, enhanced
network  security, and  ease of
management.

Add to that the ability to mix and match transport options and integrate VoIP and analog services, as needed, and CIOs can satisfy connectivity requirements from the largest office buildings to the smallest, most remote satellite locations. All, while managing implementations, operations and security with far less administrative overhead.

For state CIOs struggling with connectivity requirements for mobile offices or state parks, SD-WAN can save the day.  For CFOs, SD-WAN provides IT managers with an option to supplement or replace expensive MPLS networks with secure, cheaper broadband internet or, LTE in certain primary or failover scenarios.

If you’re a Public Sector CIO, SD-WAN is likely in your future. And, if you’re faced with your next costly WAN hardware refresh, that future is now!

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