Advantages of WANS
If your company has branches in several locations, a wide area network is a viable option to
boost productivity and increase internal communications. Below are some of the more
critical business advantages to establishing a WAN:
Centralizes IT infrastructure — Many consider this WAN’s top advantage. A WAN
eliminates the need to buy email or file servers for each office. Instead, you only have to
set up one at your head office’s data center. Setting up a WAN also simplifies server
management, since you won’t have to support, back-up, host, or physically protect
several units. Also, setting up a WAN provides significant economies of scale by
providing a central pool of IT resources the whole company can tap into.
Boosts your privacy — Setting up a WAN allows you to share sensitive data with
all your sites without having to send the information over the Internet. Having your WAN
encrypt your data before you send it adds an extra layer of protection for any
confidential material you may be transferring. With so many hackers out there just dying
to steal sensitive corporate data, a business needs all the protection it can get from
network intrusions.
Increases bandwidth — Corporate WANS often use leased lines instead of
broadband connections to form the backbone of their networks. Using leased lines offers
several pluses for a company, including higher upload speeds than your typical
broadband connections. Corporate WANS also generally offer unlimited monthly data
transfer limits, so you can use these links as much as you like without boosting costs.
Improved communications not only increase efficiency but also boost productivity.
Eliminates Need for ISDN — WANs can cut costs by eliminating the need to rent
expensive ISDN circuits for phone calls. Instead, you can have your WAN carry them. If
your WAN provider “prioritizes voice traffic,” you probably won’t see any drop off in voice
quality, either. You may also benefit from much cheaper call rates when compared to
calls made using ISDN circuits. Some companies use a hybrid approach. They have
inbound calls come over ISDN and outbound calls go over the WAN. This approach won’t
save you as much money, but it will still lower your bill.
Guaranteed uptime — Many WAN providers offer business-class support. That
means you get a specific amount of uptime monthly, quarterly, or yearly as part of your
SLA. They may also offer you round the clock support. Guaranteed uptime is a big plus
no matter what your industry. Let’s face it. No company can afford to be down for any
length of time in today’s business environment given the stringent demands of modern
customers.
Cuts costs, increase profits — In addition to eliminating the need for ISDN,
WANs can help you cut costs and increase profits in a wide variety of other ways. For
example, WANS eliminate or significantly reduce the costs of gathering teams from
different offices in one location. Your marketing team in the United States can work
closely with your manufacturing team in Germany using video conferencing and email.
Saving on the travel costs alone could make investing in a WAN a viable option for you.
WANS also provide some key technical advantages as well. In addition to providing support
for a wide variety of applications and a large number of terminals, WANs allow companies
to expand their networks through plug-in connections over locations and boost
interconnectivity by using gateways, bridges, and routers. Plus, by centralizing network
management and monitoring of use and performance, WANS ensure maximum availability
and reliability.
Disadvantages of WANS
While WANS provide numerous advantages, they have their share of disadvantages. As
with any technology, you need to be aware of these downsides to make an informed
decision about WANS. The three most critical downsides are high setup costs, security
concerns, and maintenance issues.
High setup costs — WANs are complicated and complex, so they are rather
expensive to set up. Obviously, the bigger the WAN, the costlier it is to set up. One
reason that the setup costs are high is the need to connect far-flung remote areas.
However, by using public networks, you can set up a WAN using just software (SD-
WAN), which reduces setup costs. Keep in mind also that the price/performance ratio of
WANs is better now than a decade or so ago.
Security Concerns —WANs open the way for certain types of internal security
breaches, such as unauthorized use, information theft, and malicious damage to files.
While many companies have some security in place when it comes to the branches, they
deploy the bulk of their security at their data centers to control and manage information
sent to their locations. This strategy reduces management costs but limits the company’s
ability to deal directly with security breaches at their locations. Some companies also
have a hard time compressing and accelerating SSL traffic without significantly
increasing security vulnerabilities and creating new management challenges.
Maintenance Issues — Maintaining a WAN is a challenge, no doubt about it.
Guaranteeing that your data center will be up and operating 24/7 is the biggest
maintenance challenge of all. Data center managers must be able to detect failures
before they occur and reduce data center downtime as much as possible, regardless of
the reasons. Downtime is costly, in fact, a study done by infonetics Research estimates
that medium and large businesses in North America lose as much as $100 million
annually to IT and communication technology downtime.
