Enterprise transition to Software-defined networking in a Wide Area Network : Best practices for a smooth transition to SD-WAN

Sammanfattning: Software defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) is a relatively new concept for enterprises to structure their networks throughout sites. This thesis was to find best practices for enterprises wanting to transition their current infrastructure to SD-WAN with multiple factors considered. To accomplish this, results gathered from literature reviews, lab testing and interviews with employees from two different enterprises was made.  What was accomplished from the literature review was an overview from Equity Office’s transition to SD-WAN which gave a positive result, as well as a cost of ownership tests with Talari SD-WAN units by NSS Labs. Lab testing with Talari SD-WAN units and a cloud site from Amazon Web Services resulted in improvements in performance and stability compared to a local traditional setup to the cloud site, especially on multiple simultaneous connections. Lastly, results from interviews provided deep insight on how the enterprises planned the transition, what results were expected as well as gained profits in forms of cost and effectivity.  A definitive best practice which every enterprise should follow could not be made. Instead, best practices were found by factoring in different criteria that are unique for different enterprises. For future work, narrowing down to one methodology with more resources, could help in obtaining more realistic and accurate results.