SD-WAN vs MPLS: Choosing How to Connect Your Offices

The SD-WAN vs MPLS decision is made site by site, from the work each office, plant or shop does and what it needs from its link. Internet VPN links are a third option, and an estate can end up using all three, each where it fits.

Three terms come up throughout, and the descriptions below are working ones from Signisys. MPLS here means a private circuit that a carrier provides to each site under a service contract. SD-WAN means software that steers traffic between sites over a mix of links underneath it, such as private circuits, broadband and mobile data. Our encyclopedia has a fuller SD-WAN explanation. An internet VPN link is an encrypted tunnel between two sites over ordinary internet lines.

It is written for IT and infrastructure managers whose firms run offices, plants or shops across India and the GCC. You may be facing a circuit renewal, a new site or slow cloud apps at the branches. Security is a separate decision and gets one line near the end.

SD-WAN vs MPLS vs VPN Links: Three Ways to Connect a Site

Each approach brings its own first question for the buyer. Ask these before comparing anything else, as the answers sit in your contracts and site records.

1. Private circuits: what do the carrier’s terms commit to at this site, and how is a missed commitment reported to you?
2. SD-WAN over mixed links: which links will sit underneath at this site, and who runs the devices and the policy that steers traffic?
3. Internet VPN links: how many internet lines does this site have, and who answers when the tunnel drops at night?

How well any link serves a site depends on what the site does. A shop sends card payments and stock updates. A plant may run voice calls and machine control traffic, and it asks something different of its link. The next section starts from that work, and the link comes after.

Keep the three questions beside the site table. Can nobody answer the first one for a circuit you already pay for? Then look at that site before its renewal comes up.

Start With Each Site Type and the Work Done There

List the work first, one row per kind of site. A slow or broken link has a business price. A separate piece covers what a weak link between sites costs. Fill this table in before any SD-WAN vs MPLS comparison, and answer each question in your own words.

Where the team is unsure, measure. Record delay and packet loss at each site over a normal working week before anyone decides. The figures also give you a baseline to compare against after any change.

Note each site’s country and city too. Circuit options, lead times and local support can differ by location across India and the GCC. Those details come back in the contract questions later on.

SD-WAN vs MPLS: Which Is Better for Each Site?

Asking SD-WAN vs MPLS, which is better, only makes sense one site at a time. Check each site’s answers from the table above against the five rows below.

The middle column is a lean for a person to judge from that site’s own answers. It says nothing about which approach is better in general.

A site can match two rows. A large branch with voice traffic and direct cloud use, for example, sits on rows one and two at once. In that case, let the row tied to the work that stops the site lead. Use the other row’s question as the test.

MPLS vs SD-WAN Pros and Cons, Written as Questions

Each of the MPLS vs SD-WAN pros and cons below is a question for your team or a provider. One pair covers each approach, with internet VPN links included. Answer them per site, as the same question can come out differently at a plant and at a shop.

Whatever the pairs show, add up the full total for each approach at each site. Count devices, licenses, circuits or lines, support and the staff time to run it all. Then compare the totals over the same term, with the same support hours. That way one option is not priced on office hours and another on round-the-clock cover.

Write down any question that has no clear answer, and take it into the contract talks in the next section.

Terms to Settle Before You Order

Get answers to these six questions in writing for each site before you sign or renew anything.

1. What term does the contract run for, what are the break clauses, and what does leaving early involve?
2. How are the service levels written, how is an outage measured, and how do you report one?
3. How long does a new circuit or line take at each location, from order to a working link?
4. Who answers a fault at night, and across the local working week in each country? Working weeks can differ between GCC countries, so check each one.
5. Is the provider present in each India and GCC country you need, or does it work through local partners there? If partners are involved, who owns a fault from start to finish?
6. Is a backup link physically separate, and does it enter the building by another route? SP 800-34 Revision 1 (2010) covers this in its contingency guidance on separate link paths. Where redundant links are used, it says they should have physical separation and not follow the same path. Otherwise, a single incident such as a cable cut could disrupt both.

Put the six answers next to each site’s row from the earlier table. Say a provider gives vague answers on fault cover for a plant that runs night shifts. That calls for a follow-up meeting before you go further.

SD-WAN vs MPLS in a Mixed Estate: Choosing the Order

Here the SD-WAN vs MPLS question gets a fresh answer at each site, in an order you choose. Four moves keep that order sensible.

1. Pick the first site: choose one with a renewal date near and work that can put up with a test.
2. Measure before deciding: use the week of delay and loss figures to decide which sites keep a private circuit.
3. Review after each site: ask the users and the support team what changed, before the next site moves.
4. Keep a way back: leave the old link in place until the new one has carried real work for a period you agreed in advance.

Pick a first site where a bad day is survivable, since that site is where the team learns. In the site table, other sites’ shared systems depend on the head office link. That makes it a poor place to learn.

Some sites may keep a private circuit at the end, and that is a valid result. The order decides only when each site gets its answer.

Security, Setup and Rating Your Current Links

Security is a separate decision. For sites on internet VPN links, the IPsec VPN guide describes IPsec as a collection of protocols that assist in protecting communications over networks. Anything beyond that belongs in a security review. For whether branch traffic is checked by site firewalls or by a cloud service, see the companion comparison.

Build steps for an internet VPN link sit in the guide linked from the decision table. A separate method lets you rate the links you have now before choosing.

Call in a specialist for any of these:

1. Many sites across several countries, each with its own providers and contracts.
2. Voice or plant control traffic, where delay shows up as stopped work.
3. A renewal notice date inside the next few months, with no measurements yet.

Signisys sells networking services. Read this guide as one view, and check it against what providers tell you. Before a renewal or a new order, our team can look over your site table with you. The work sits under a review of how your sites connect. It is part of the wider networking solution and our support for circuits, routers and networks. No charge, with a fixed scope.

SD-WAN vs MPLS FAQ: Buyer Questions