SD-WAN vs MPLS: choosing between these two connectivity options can be difficult if you’re not sure how they actually differ from one another. As one of the UK’s most dedicated managed SD-WAN providers, we’ve created this blog to inform you of the key differences between these two options.
Understanding the main discrepancies between SD-WAN and MPLS is key to making the right decision for your company and its network infrastructure. Both alternatives have their own unique benefits, making them suitable for different business requirements and needs.
If you’ve already decided which option you’d like to integrate into your business, we can help you put your plan into action, as we offer both managed SD-WAN and MPLS services for our clients – just get in touch with our team to find out more.
What is MPLS?
MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) is a form of networking technology that has been used for decades, with its popularity showing how important MPLS IPVPN can be for your business. MPLS directs data from one network node to the next, based on short path labels, instead of using longer network addresses. Using these labels speeds up your traffic flow and reduces latency, showing a major benefit of using this form of communication.
We offer a selection of tailored MPLS IPVPN services for our clients, providing a secure network that connects multiple locations using the internet.
How Does MPLS Work?
As previously stated, MPLS uses labels to create predetermined paths for data packets, instead of using typical network addresses. This process ensures an efficient and reliable delivery of your data, whilst also providing secure internet access.
The labels used are assigned to data packets at the ingress point of the network – routers along this network path use the labels to forward these data packets to their final destination. Not only does this process eliminate the need for complex lookups in routing tables, but it also results in a much faster and more predictable performance for all.
What Are the Main Pros and Cons of MPLS?
We’ve already briefly touched upon some of the advantages that MPLS can grant your business. However, there are a range of other pros and cons you need to be aware of that should hopefully help to make your decision easier.
The Benefits of MPLS |
The Drawbacks of MPLS |
| Reliability: MPLS is extremely reliable and offers high performance, making it highly suitable for your business operations. | Cost: MPLS can be expensive – particularly if your business has high bandwidth requirements or uses multiple locations. |
| Cyber security: MPLS operates on a private network isolated from the public internet, making it extremely secure to use. | Limited flexibility: MPLS is less flexible and adaptable to network changes when compared to SD-WAN. |
| High performance: MPLS usually offers a high performance, creating a good user experience that promotes low latency | Scalability: MPLS can be harder to scale than SD-WAN, due to its point-to-point network design. |
What is SD-WAN?
SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) is a networking solution that uses software-defined networking principles to optimise your WAN management. Essentially, SD-WAN is a software-defined version of a typical managed WAN service. SD-WANs are different from MPLS as they use software to control and direct traffic across the network, whereas MPLS relies on hardware-based routing.
Find out more about what is a wide area network in our insightful blog.
How Does SD-WAN Work?
SD-WANs use software to connect networks across large distances. Multiple connection types can be used to do this, including MPLS, fibre broadband, and LTE, giving you many choices.
SD-WAN was specifically designed to solve many of the problems associated with traditional WANs (wide area networks), improving network performance, redundancy, and bandwidth, whilst also centralising management.
What Are the Main Pros and Cons of SD-WAN?
SD-WAN has many tangible benefits for modern businesses and organisations, explaining why this WAN solution has become so popular in recent years. Let’s take a look at some of the key benefits and drawbacks of SD-WAN that you should be aware of before making your decision.
The Benefits of SD-WAN |
The Drawbacks of SD-WAN |
| Cost-effectiveness: SD-WAN is relatively cost-effective when compared to MPLS, as affordable internet connections can be used. | Security challenges: SD-WAN can have cyber security challenges, as having direct access to the internet can increase vulnerabilities. |
| Increased flexibility: SD-WAN is also highly flexible and adaptable, which makes it easier to scale it to your business needs. SD-WANs are also useful for remote working practices. | Limited bandwidth: SD-WAN only supports point-to-point connections, which means bandwidth is limited as two separate sites cannot be connected. |
| Improved performance: As multiple connection types can be used with SD-WAN, your traffic routing can be optimised to provide better performance. | Difficult to troubleshoot: SD-WAN can be difficult to troubleshoot, due to the complexity of its configurations. This means that determining the root cause of a problem can be difficult. |
SD-WAN vs MPLS: The Key Differences
Hopefully, now, you should have a greater idea of what SD-WAN and MPLS are, which should have given you some understanding of which network solution is best for your company.
When comparing SD-WAN vs MPLS, there are several key differences that may influence your decision:
1. The Cost of Each Service
One major difference between SD-WAN and MPLS is the cost of each service, as MPLS is typically more expensive to use. This is because it has a dedicated infrastructure that requires high reliability to run effectively. On the other hand, SD-WAN is more cost-effective, as this form of WAN allows businesses and organisations to use cheaper internet connections.
2. Network Performance
How well your chosen service performs is another important factor to consider, as it can massively affect your network performance. Technically, MPLS offers a more consistent performance, due to its low latency and high reliability, which makes it ideal for real-time applications.
SD-WANs can also provide a decent performance, but this isn’t always a given. With this WAN solution, you get dynamic traffic routing, which can improve performance in some cases. However, this largely depends on the quality of the internet connections you decide to use.
3. Scalability and Flexibility
If your business is predicted to grow shortly, you’ll likely want to seek out a service that offers a high degree of both flexibility and scalability. MPLS is a little less flexible than SD-WAN, due to its static, hardware-based architecture.
Scaling can be harder and more expensive with MPLS, as you may require additional hardware configurations to make it work properly. On the other hand, SD-WAN is highly scalable, offering you the ability to add new connections and locations quickly and efficiently.
4. Cyber Security
Cyber security is another main consideration when deciding between SD-WAN vs MPLS. Whilst both options can be made secure, MPLS is inherently safer, as it uses a private network architecture.
However, SD-WAN usually requires additional security measures (like encryption and managed firewall services), to ensure your data is always protected. This is largely because SD-WAN can use the public internet – if you’re using SD-WAN over a private network or a business leased line, you may not have these security concerns.
SD-WAN vs MPLS: The Best Use Cases
Another factor that should be considered when deciding between SD-WAN and MPLS is what you expect to use your new service for. If your business uses a lot of sensitive data and you have a lot of information that must be kept safe, then you may want to choose MPLS over SD-WAN. Equally, if your industry has strict compliance and security needs (for example, if you’re based within the healthcare or finance sectors), you could benefit from an MPLS network.
Likewise, if your company relies on the use of real-time applications like video conferencing functions and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), MPLS’s reliability makes the choice a no-brainer. If your network requirements are relatively static, MPLS can also be useful in providing consistent performance, without needing frequent adjustments over time.
However, there are many situations in which SD-WAN might be the best choice to make. When using SD-WAN, you’re not tied to a specific internet connection. This means you can leverage an affordable connection to reduce your overall WAN costs – without compromising on performance.
If your business has frequently changing network demands, then the flexibility of SD-WAN could also be for you – particularly if you have numerous branch offices or cloud-based services. If you’re heavily reliant on cloud services, SD-WAN is likely the best service for you, able to easily optimise traffic routing to and from the cloud for you.
Can MPLS and SD-WAN Co-Exist?
SD-WAN and MPLS are often positioned as opposing forms of technology, but in the real world, they can co-exist and even complement each other, in some cases. For example, hybrid WAN solutions that integrate MPLS’ architecture now exist, combining the reliability of MPLS with the flexibility and price of SD-WAN. Taking this approach will enable you to use the strengths of both forms of technology.
There’s also nothing to stop you from implementing MPLS and SD-WAN into your business at the same time. For instance, if your business has mission-critical tasks that require guaranteed performance, MPLS may be the best choice. However, if you’re dealing with less sensitive data, or simply browsing the web, then SD-WAN may be useful.
Making the Right Choice for Your Business
Choosing between SD-WAN and MPLS ultimately depends on the specific requirements, budget, and long-term goals of your business. It can be a hard decision to make, so we’ve collated some key considerations together here to help you make an informed decision for your company:
- Assess your network needs: You should first assess what your network needs are, by determining the different types of applications and traffic your site relies on, as well as your managed cyber security and network performance requirements.
- Create a budget: Next, you need to work out what your budget is, taking care to think about the cost of software, hardware, and ongoing maintenance.
- Plan for the future: If you run a small business and there’s a chance your company may need to scale upwards in the future, it’s important to think about your scalability needs.
- Consult with the experts: If you want to evaluate your connectivity options and design a solution that is tailored directly to your business, you should speak to a trusted networking provider like the expert team at M247.
The Final Verdict: SD-WAN vs MPLS
We’re down to the final verdict: which option should you choose – SD-WAN vs MPLS?
Both options have their uses in the modern world of business – MPLS is a reliable private network for organisations that prioritise security, stability and network performance. However, SD-WAN is more modern, offering a flexible and cost-effective alternative for businesses with an existing WAN infrastructure.
In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss your options further with our team to determine the best solution for your needs, we’ll be happy to help. Just remember – it’s not ‘one-size-fits-all’. However, we can still tailor your plan directly to your business, able to evaluate your current and future requirements carefully to always find you the best deal.
If you’re ready to get started, please don’t hesitate to contact our expert IT team for more information.
