SD-WAN Design

SD-WAN benefits from the DevOps mindset. With DevOps, the steps in the process flow are basically: Plan, Code, Build, Test, Release, Continuous Deployment and Continuous Integration, Operate, Monitor through Continuous Feedback Loop, Notify, and Action. With a legacy WAN solution, the planning stage was the primary focus, and it was thought that design perfection will be achieved. With SD-WAN, perfection is only achieved through dynamic iteration. This can also be considered the CI/CD-based optimization process. SD-WAN design works better with an implementation of a Proof of Concept (POC), then pilot, then full production implementations. Each implementation is then optimized through the DevOps process, even if no code is modified but the solution is refined through the process.

The best SD-WAN design starts with a high-level design that takes into consideration the requirements, such as sites, circuits, bandwidth per site, aggregate hub bandwidth requirements, cloud...