MPLS vs SD-WAN: Why businesses still prefer MPLS enterprise networks

SD-WAN benefits over MPLS networks

Has SD-WAN technology completely replaced MPLS or is there still a use-case for legacy private enterprise networks? When SD-WAN first appeared, it promised a revolutionary technology. A network innovation that would replace legacy MPLS networks, with private networks that were cheaper and more flexible. SD-WAN technology promised to give businesses full control again over their own enterprise network.

Why are SD-WAN enterprise networks so popular?

SD-WAN networks have grown significantly in popularity throughout the past years. This is because SD-WAN has the following benefits and advantages over MPLS networks.

4 benefits and advantages of SD-WAN over MPLS networks

1. SD-WAN networks can easily be integrated and connected to other security services. Some examples are intrusion detection systems, URL filtering and DNS services. MPLS is limited in that aspect and primarily only supports encryption of data.
2. SD-WAN is far more flexible than MPLS. It is faster to connect new locations and users via SD-WAN compared to MPLS.
3. The overall network performance and routing of network traffic is faster and more dynamic with SD-WAN compared to MPLS.
4. It is much more cost-effective to use SD-WAN technology compared to expensive MPLS networks. SD-WAN also supports a wide variety of cheaper access networks, while MPLS sites are often added to the network via expensive leased lines.

These benefits have created a huge demand for SD-WAN networks and especially SASE.

Are MPLS networks dead and does MPLS have any future left?

Many businesses still prefer MPLS over SD-WAN networks. There is still a place for traditional MPLS based IP-VPN networks. The decision to go with MPLS over SD-WAN depends on the individual customer and their enterprise network needs and use cases.

There are many factors that could decide whether MPLS or SD-WAN is a better technology for the customer’s enterprise network. Some of the factors to consider are based on performance, transport, distribution, access to clouds, security and many other characteristics. Network cost also has a significant impact on the final decision whether MPLS or SD-WAN is better for the customer’s network.

Here are 4 important reasons why some customers are still preferring MPLS of SD-WAN based enterprise networks.

4 benefits and advantages of MPLS over SD-WAN networks

1. MPLS networks are more reliable and offer quality of service (QoS) for mission critical applications in the network. For example, latency sensitive voice and video services that must be prioritized all the time. SD-WAN can suffer from internet congestion issues and therefore cannot compete with MPLS’ unparalleled reliability and performance.
2. MPLS traffic is always separated from the public internet, which is not the case with SD-WAN. In terms of network security and transport of sensitive data, nothing can compete with the security offered by MPLS networks. Since MPLS networks are separated from the public internet, they also are not vulnerable to hacks and DDoS attacks.
3. MPLS networks are far less complex to manage and operate compared to SD-WAN networks. MPLS networks offer consistent performance and require less maintenance.
4. Legacy applications and services will almost always perform better over MPLS networks. SD-WAN networks do not always support certain legacy applications. The network performance for such legacy applications and services cannot be supported over SD-WAN.

SD-WAN vs MPLS: Which one is better for colocation data centers or cloud services?

When considering these needs, a service provider can better decide whether an SD-WAN is for them. Or if they would be better off with a traditional MPLS network based on a tried, tested, and robust technology. And to add to this, they really should be matching the functionality of both options and whether they have the need as well as the skills to adopt and manage SD-WAN.

Does the enterprise still have their applications running on private IT infrastructure? Are these applications hosted in their own colocation data center or virtual private cloud infrastructure? Then MPLS networks can fulfill their needs.

But if the enterprise is mostly consuming SaaS applications over the Internet and has the skills to make changes to improve the applications’ performance? In such cases SD-WAN has the clear advantage over MPLS.

MPLS vs SD-WAN: Which one is more secure and offers higher security?

MPLS networks are more secure as they run over private connections that do not touch the public Internet. This creates a much lower attack surface for cybercriminals to try to break-in to. They will still require Internet access for their users, which can be delivered at a single site or dual sites for resilience. This would require firewalls only at those sites. This makes the MPLS network less complex and more secure.

On the other hand, If the customer uses SD-WAN and a local breakout, they would require security at all sites as the attack surface is much larger. This makes an SD-WAN network more complex to manage and at risk from a security point-of-view.

SD-WAN vs MPLS: Why is Quality-of-Service (QoS) important?

If a customer chooses SD-WAN where the Internet is an underlay network, the performance is impacted by the public internet. With very little capability to deal with poor performance. Often, an enterprise customer will also want an MPLS based underlay for critical applications. Many applications still work much better on a MPLS underlay. Mission critical applications will perform better on a MPLS network. This is because Quality of Service (QoS) for certain traffic priority can be controlled and guaranteed.

MPLS vs SD-WAN: Private cloud and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

If an enterprise customer is consuming Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from multiple Cloud providers, there will be a need for those applications in the different Clouds to communicate with each other. They will also need to communicate with the other enterprise locations. This communication can be either via an Internet access or via a private access.

In the case of the Internet, the charges for egress data are higher over the public internet than egress data from a private Cloud connection. This inter-cloud traffic will have to travel through the enterprise sites which will increase the need for higher Internet circuits.

If the customer uses MPLS as the underlay to communicate between Cloud providers over private Cloud connections, they will save significantly on cloud egress costs. But they would also save on the cost of higher Internet services. Additional savings could be achieved through reducing the cost of security to protect the data and information that is traveling over the Internet.

Performance is also improved through the lack of “hair pinning” through an enterprise location. With the mesh routing of IP-VPN and through the guaranteed quality of service an IP-VPN provides, the latency, jitter and packet loss will be better.

5 features of MPLS networks that can improve application performance

MPLS networks offer several features that will improve application performance:

1. Mesh routing and uncontended bandwidth to reduce latency and guarantee quality of service.
2. High resilience options for access circuits.
3. Highly resilient core networks.
4. Access through Ethernet and MPLS NNIs to increase reach with guaranteed bandwidth.
5. Direct access from all sites to private and public cloud services

Conclusion: MPLS vs SD-WAN enterprise networks

Is SD-WAN then a buzz word in enterprise networking and is MPLS still the best? While SD-WAN has lots of benefits, for enterprises it is still very important to drill down into what the business users are trying to achieve. In many cases, a traditional MPLS network might still be the best enterprise network decision, with better performance, higher security and often at a lower cost. Contact me for more information and how I can support your IT business.