For today’s enterprises, their network infrastructure is their lifeblood. It allows them to connect their IT assets around the world, and connect with the partners and customers that matter to their business. It’s no wonder so many of them are looking for ways to improve performance across those networks, while also optimizing costs, resilience, scalability and flexibility.
These businesses have different networking technologies to help them achieve this goal. In recent years, the software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) has been among the most prominent of these technologies. Even today, it’s clear that the SD-WAN era isn’t over: IDC predicts that the market for SD-WAN infrastructure will grow 10.1% CAGR between 2023 and 2027, reaching $7.52 billion in total value.[1]
However, SD-WAN isn’t the only option that enterprises have as they pursue their network modernization priorities, and it may seem overwhelming to consider all the possibilities. One such option is an internet protocol wide-area network (IP-WAN). Let’s look at what distinguishes IP-WAN from SD-WAN, and why businesses might want to use both technologies together to enable advanced networking use cases.
What is SD-WAN, and how do businesses use it?
An SD-WAN is an example of an overlay network, where software provides a layer of separation from the physical network infrastructure (also known as the underlay network). It’s a virtualized network solution that provides much greater flexibility than a traditional physical network; when you need to change the network, you can simply make updates at the software level, without the expense and time required to build new network infrastructure.
SD-WAN rose to prominence because many enterprises saw the benefits of private networking, but considered it too expensive for all their networking needs. They looked at SD-WAN as an effective compromise. It offers much of same functionality as a true private networking service, including the ability to route traffic dynamically to avoid bottlenecks, compress traffic to improve performance, and apply the appropriate security measures to protect sensitive data. At the same time, it’s more cost-effective and accessible.
It also offers greater choice, with the option to use both private and public connectivity, all managed via the same software platform. When you need to connect to partners or users in locations where you don’t already have a dedicated networking solution, SD-WAN offers a comparable experience with lower costs and less complexity.
Because SD-WANs can be fully virtualized, you can manage them the same way no matter what physical network infrastructure they’re layered on top of. In some cases, this could even include wireless network infrastructure. They’re also easy to deploy and adapt in different locations as your networking needs change.
For instance, Equinix Network Edge offers SD-WAN controllers from top vendors as virtual devices in many strategic metros worldwide. This can help further optimize the SD-WAN benefits that led so many enterprises to pursue the technology in the first place, such as faster deployment, greater flexibility and agility, and lower costs for infrastructure management and connectivity.
What is IP-WAN? How does it differ from SD-WAN?
IP-WAN is Equinix’s Layer 3 VPN service for routing IP packets between metros. Similar to MPLS VPNs offered by network service providers, IP-WAN works by combining the capabilities of multipoint-to-multipoint (E-LAN) networking services in the core and Equinix Fabric Cloud Router instances at the edge. It’s one of many features integrated into Equinix Fabric®, our virtual interconnection solution.
Customers can use IP-WAN for any-to-any connectivity without the hassles of provisioning multiple point-to-point connections or configuring BGP peering sessions on every Fabric Cloud Router instance. IP-WAN requires no additional hardware or software to deploy and removes many of the challenges involved with building a resilient global Layer 3 network.
Since it works at the network layer, an IP-WAN can adapt quickly to changes in the physical infrastructure. Also, it doesn’t require the customer to maintain backup connections or spare equipment. Instead, the network leverages multiple backbone routes and the high-availability design of Fabric Cloud Router to handle all reroutes and failovers automatically.
IP-WAN connections are dynamic and can be upgraded or downgraded within minutes to align with the changing needs of the customer. With the Fabric Cloud Router advanced package, connections to the IP-WAN can be provisioned as large as 25 Gbps.[2] The integration between IP-WAN and the underlay network means that even at this extremely high capacity, there will be no performance degradation or throughput limitations to contend with.
IP-WAN enables global cloud-to-cloud routing
Multicloud networking is a growing use case for many enterprises as they look to capitalize on services from all major cloud providers. Fortunately, it’s one area where IP-WAN really shines. Customers can connect their Fabric Cloud Router instances to an IP-WAN to create a dedicated multicloud Layer 3 network, regionally or globally.
Connecting different Fabric Cloud Router instances with IP-WAN technology enables direct cloud-to-cloud connectivity on a single routing domain. It’s not a hub-and-spoke model, where all traffic has to pass through a centralized bottleneck before continuing on to its final destination. Instead, traffic moves directly from one cloud provider to another, even if you’re running those cloud workloads in different regions. Cloud-to-cloud routes automatically propagate wherever they’re needed, thus enabling optimized performance for global multicloud applications.
Connecting Fabric Cloud Router with IP-WAN can unlock the following benefits of Equinix Fabric:
- Ease of management: Visualize and control your global network backbone from our self-service web portal. Add new metros and clouds quickly to meet your changing business needs.
- Cost-efficiency: Capitalize on pay-as-you-go pricing with no contract terms—in contrast to the fixed-price, long-term contracts offered by some other private networking providers.
- Scalability: Utilize high-bandwidth Equinix Fabric virtual connections.
- Low latency: Connect directly to more than 200 cloud on-ramps, ensuring proximity to the right clouds in the right places.
How can IP-WAN and SD-WAN complement one another?
While it’s clear that IP-WAN can provide certain benefits SD-WAN can’t—particularly in multicloud networking—this doesn’t mean it can replace SD-WAN across all use cases, or that SD-WAN will go away anytime soon. In fact, the future of SD-WAN is as bright as ever. Network vendors are integrating AI capabilities for SD-WAN optimization, enabling SD-WANs that are even smarter, more agile and more efficient than before.
The freedom of choice that SD-WAN offers continues to be a key benefit. It allows users to draw from the strengths of different underlay networks, including mobile networks and the internet. Many enterprises recognize the value of a hybrid approach to networking—incorporating both private and public networking capabilities to expand their reach. SD-WAN undoubtedly has a place in their networking strategies. Using it alongside IP-WAN could help them optimize performance and reliability across all the different global endpoints that make up their hybrid multicloud infrastructure.
Equinix is the ideal place to get even more SD-WAN options. You can deploy in an Equinix IBX® colocation data center, in an Equinix Metal® single-tenant bare metal deployment, or as an Equinix Network Edge virtual device. No matter which option you choose, you can pair it with Equinix Fabric for global interconnection capabilities at software speed.
Learn more about how to deploy SD-WAN on Platform Equinix®.
Learn more about connecting Fabric Cloud Router instances with IP-WAN.
Read the guide to multicloud networking: 7 key questions to ask when optimizing a multicloud network.
[1] IDC Market Forecast, Worldwide SD-WAN Infrastructure Forecast, 2023-2027, August 2023, IDC #US51161523.
[2] Support for 25 Gbps IP-WAN connections is scheduled to begin in late August 2024.
Subscribe to the Equinix Blog