{"id":17657,"date":"2021-03-24T04:20:50","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T04:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/pandemic-pushes-enterprise-connectivity-to-take-a-new-path\/"},"modified":"2021-03-24T04:20:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T04:20:50","slug":"pandemic-pushes-enterprise-connectivity-to-take-a-new-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/pandemic-pushes-enterprise-connectivity-to-take-a-new-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandemic pushes enterprise connectivity to take a new path"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Software-defined WAN finds traction during the pandemic<\/h3>\n

SD-WAN, which uses software to manage network traffic across a wide-area network or WAN, proved to be foundational to the path forged Having implemented an SD-WAN architecture<\/a> in 2019, SimonMed CIO Duleep Wikramanayake pre-configured SD-WAN routers and shipped them to 150 of the company’s 200 radiologists so they could work remotely. Because the radiologists could simply plug in the device and get up and running quickly all “COVID was the catalyst,” Wikramanayake said. “We had introduced SD-WAN and we realized we could do a lot of other things. \u2026 When things closed down, we went all out for digital transformation.”<\/p>\n

SD-WAN converges with SASE<\/h4>\n

\"Shamus\"ShamusShamus McGillicuddy <\/p>\n

Shamus McGillicuddy, vice president at EMA, sees SD-WAN technology converging with SASE, Secure Access Service Edge<\/a>, a zero-trust cybersecurity blueprint developed “SD-WAN will be an application on a SASE platform for cloud-based security due to the shift toward work from anywhere, whether home or office, to provide a secure remote connection for remote workers,” McGillicuddy said.<\/p>\n

SimonMed’s magic boxes have direct internet access<\/a> connections for SD-WAN that carry picture archiving and communication system medical images. The large X-ray, MRI, ultrasound, CT-scan and video files require significant bandwidth, which the SD-WAN connections can handle. The routers in a box also include a broadband connection for applications such as Microsoft Office.<\/p>\n

The sudden shift to remote work en masse<\/em> — although it necessitated some 24×7 work for his team — was fortuitous for SimonMed, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz. “Our MPLS voice and data costs were $5.4 million. Our costs are now about $2.1 million. We grew SimonMed was not alone in pulling the lever on SD-WAN. The approach to managing network traffic has been gaining momentum in recent years and was accelerated “Enterprises are counting on the technology [SD-WAN] to improve security, enhance operational visibility, optimize performance, enable cloud connectivity and reduce overall complexity,” the report stated.<\/p>\n

But EMA also found that MPLS<\/a> is not fading away. Of enterprises that are expanding the role of the internet, more than half are making no change to their use of MPLS, according to the consultancy.<\/p>\n

\"Lee\"LeeLee Doyle<\/p>\n

“SD-WAN tends to be pricey, and you get into scale issues. Not everyone needs it,” said Lee Doyle, principal analyst at Doyle Research.<\/p>\n

Cost appeared to be a factor in enterprise SD-WAN deployments during the pandemic, said Shin Umeda, vice president at research firm Dell’Oro Group. “In 2020, SD-WAN was used for a small number of remote workers — generally people with very high-value job functions that have specialized applications that require secure and reliable connectivity,” she said. However, costs are declining as SD-WAN vendors increasingly target remote-work implementations, opening the door for larger deployments, she added.<\/p>\n

FordHarrison LLP, a multistate law firm based in Atlanta, is blending SD-WAN and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technology to enable its attorneys to work remotely. Like SimonMed, FordHarrison had just completed a move from MPLS to SD-WAN when the pandemic struck. It was a sensible move, since the firm was able to eliminate the need — and cost — of a full-time engineer to manage 25 Cisco routers that handled voice and data traffic across the firm’s MPLS network. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the new networking strategy shifted into high gear.<\/p>\n

\"MPLS
Of enterprises that are expanding the role of the internet in their network architecture, more than half are making no change to their MPLS footprint.
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“When COVID hit, we sent almost the entire workforce home in March 2020,” said Scott Shaw, CTO of FordHarrison. Although all attorneys could work remotely before the pandemic, no more than 50 were typically connected at one time. Overnight, 300 lawyers needed reliable, high-bandwidth and low-cost connectivity, so they could share large numbers of documents, including very large files. “They were able to [share them] with no lag and no drag. It just worked,” Shaw said.<\/p>\n

\"Scott\"ScottScott Shaw<\/p>\n

Attorneys working from home use Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop<\/a> and Microsoft Remote Desktop Gateway through their ISP’s connection. From their VDI workstations, the attorneys are connected to the nearest of the firm’s 25 local offices. From there, an SD-WAN connection carries data to and from the firm’s data center in Atlanta. An SD-WAN router in a box would be overkill for the firm’s attorneys, but not so for the firm’s CFO, for whom Shaw has configured such a device.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Software-defined WAN finds traction during the pandemic SD-WAN, which uses software to manage network traffic across a wide-area network or WAN, proved to be foundational to the path forged Having implemented an SD-WAN architecture in 2019, SimonMed CIO Duleep Wikramanayake pre-configured SD-WAN routers and shipped them to 150 of the company’s 200 radiologists so they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}