Author: Daniel Luedke
In today’s corporate networks, where data flows between branches, cloud platforms, and remote employees, network visibility is paramount. Traditional Wide Area Networks (WANs) are increasingly being replaced by Software-Defined WANs (SD-WANs), driven by the need to support cloud computing, hybrid work and branch connectivity, and digital transformation that extends to Saas and cloud-based services. While SD-WAN offers greater flexibility, lower cost, and efficiency, it also brings a unique set of visibility challenges to Network Operations supporting day 2 efforts, even when packaged within Secure Access Service Edge solutions (SASE). Without comprehensive and unified visibility into network traffic, data flows throughout the ecosystem, and network health, organizations will struggle to prevent or minimize the effects of network outages, degraded performance, attacks, and operational inefficiencies.
Let’s explore how to empower IT operations, including network and security operations, with increased visibility across SD-WAN environments and the broader corporate network infrastructure. From enhancing network observability to implementing defensive threat detection, we’ll cover the steps and tools essential to achieving a robust SD-WAN network visibility strategy. By the end, you’ll understand the practical solutions that can help your organization gain total control over its SD-WAN network, improving visibility, performance, and security.
1. The Importance of Network Observability in SD-WAN
As organizations expand their digital infrastructure, SD-WAN has emerged as a key technology for securely and efficiently connecting branches, data centers, and cloud services. Unlike traditional WANs, which rely on fixed, often costly connections, SD-WAN routes traffic over multiple types of connections, including broadband, MPLS, and LTE, based on network conditions and business requirements. This dynamic approach to networking enhances agility and scalability, but it also adds complexity, particularly when it comes to maintaining visibility across such diverse network paths.
Why Network Observability is Essential in SD-WAN
Network observability is more than just monitoring—it’s about having a complete, real-time understanding of the flows, performance metrics, and security events occurring across the entire network.
Plixer One is a comprehensive network observability platform designed to provide deep, real-time insights into data flows, performance metrics, and security events across complex network environments. By leveraging existing network flow data, Plixer One delivers total visibility, enabling IT and security teams to monitor and analyze traffic patterns, detect anomalies, and respond to potential threats promptly. Its advanced analytics and reporting capabilities facilitate proactive network management, ensuring optimal performance and robust security. With Plixer One, organizations can achieve a holistic understanding of their network’s behavior, supporting informed decision-making and enhancing overall operational efficiency.
Here’s why it’s indispensable:
1. Optimized Network Performance
SD-WAN’s ability to adapt and route traffic based on network conditions is a powerful tool, but it requires careful monitoring to ensure efficiency. With network observability, IT, NetOps and SecOps teams gain deeper insight into real-time traffic patterns, identify congestion points, and proactively adjust configurations to prevent bottlenecks. This optimized performance ensures that critical business applications are not interrupted, leading to a more seamless experience for users.
Plixer One takes SD-WAN observability to the next level by providing IT with deep, real-time visibility into every aspect of network performance and security. By capturing and analyzing network flow data, Plixer One offers a comprehensive view of traffic patterns, bandwidth utilization, and potential congestion points across all connections—from branch locations to cloud environments. With automated alerts and AI-driven analytics, Plixer enables IT teams to proactively identify and resolve bottlenecks before they impact critical applications. This powerful visibility platform allows organizations to continuously optimize their SD-WAN configurations, enhancing both efficiency and user experience.
Furthermore, Plixer ensures seamless integration with existing IT systems enabling cross-platform insights that enhance operational efficiency across the entire network. By consolidating all network data into one accessible platform, Plixer One reduces the complexity of managing SD-WAN and hybrid environments, allowing IT teams to focus on strategic improvements rather than routine troubleshooting. This holistic approach to observability transforms SD-WAN management into a streamlined, proactive process, ensuring that the network supports and scales with evolving business requirements.
2. Enhanced Security and Threat Detection
The decentralized nature of SD-WAN presents unique security challenges, as traffic is often routed over the internet or other external networks. Network defense provides IT and security teams with insights into data flow, helping to detect abnormal patterns that might indicate a security breach. It also allows organizations to implement defensive measures, such as alerting or blocking, in real-time, thereby reducing the risk of a successful attack.
Plixer One enhances SD-WAN security by delivering unparalleled visibility into traffic patterns across every segment of the network, including internet-bound and external connections. By capturing and analyzing detailed flow data, Plixer One provides IT and security teams with the insights needed to identify potential threats that could otherwise go undetected in a decentralized environment. With advanced anomaly detection, Plixer automates alerts, and real-time monitoring, so security teams can swiftly detect suspicious behavior, such as unusual data flows or unauthorized access attempts, and take immediate action to block or mitigate threats.
Furthermore, Plixer One integrates seamlessly with existing security tools and SIEM platforms, creating a cohesive security ecosystem that spans across on-premises, cloud, and SD-WAN environments. This integration enables Plixer to provide contextual intelligence, enriching alerts with relevant data that helps teams understand the nature and scope of a threat. By empowering IT and security professionals with actionable intelligence and centralized control, Plixer One strengthens network defenses, ensuring that decentralized SD-WAN traffic is fully monitored and secured against evolving risks.
3. Improved User Experience and Productivity
Employees rely on fast, reliable network connections to access cloud applications, communicate, and collaborate. Poor network performance can hinder productivity and impact customer experiences. By maintaining visibility into the SD-WAN environment, organizations can ensure that users consistently receive the bandwidth and speed they need, contributing to a positive experience and better productivity.
Plixer One plays a crucial role in ensuring network reliability and optimizing the user experience across SD-WAN environments. By providing real-time insights into bandwidth usage, application performance, and data flow patterns, Plixer One allows IT teams focused on NetOps and SecOps to prioritize efforts for critical applications. With detailed visibility into how network resources are being used, Plixer helps prevent bandwidth congestion and identifies areas for optimization, ensuring that employees always have the reliable connections they need to work efficiently.
Additionally, Plixer One’s proactive monitoring and automated alerting mean that IT teams can detect performance issues before they impact users, reducing downtime and enabling a seamless user experience. With customizable dashboards and reporting, Plixer provides a clear view of network health, empowering teams to make data-driven adjustments that align with business priorities and maintain high productivity levels. By continuously optimizing network performance, Plixer One ensures that companies can deliver the speed and stability employees expect, fostering a productive and positive environment for both employees and customers.
4. Supporting Business Continuity and Compliance
Visibility is essential for maintaining uptime and meeting compliance requirements, especially for industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, where regulatory oversight is high. Network visibility enables companies to document and verify that their network meets industry standards, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS, reducing legal risks and protecting customer data.
Plixer One provides the in-depth network observability that compliance-focused industries need to stay secure and regulation-ready. By offering comprehensive, centralized visibility across SD-WAN, cloud, and on-premises environments, Plixer One helps organizations monitor and log all network activity in a manner that aligns with industry standards. Detailed audit trails, customizable reporting, and data retention features allow IT and compliance teams to verify that data flows are secure, policies are enforced, and sensitive information is protected at every stage.
Moreover, Plixer One’s real-time alerting and anomaly detection capabilities ensure that any suspicious activity is immediately flagged, allowing organizations to demonstrate active risk management and swift incident response in line with regulatory requirements. By integrating seamlessly with existing compliance and security tools, Plixer One supports a streamlined approach to meeting GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and other industry standards. This makes it easier for companies to maintain continuous compliance, avoid potential fines, and, most importantly, protect the sensitive customer data that is central to their operations.
2. Key Challenges of Achieving Visibility in SD-WAN Environments
Achieving total visibility across SD-WAN is not without its challenges. The very characteristics that make SD-WAN flexible and scalable also make it difficult to monitor effectively. Here are some of the primary obstacles companies face when trying to maintain visibility in an SD-WAN environment:
Decentralized Network Structures
One of the core benefits of SD-WAN is its decentralized nature. Unlike traditional WANs, which rely on single, centralized connections, SD-WAN allows traffic to flow over a variety of connections, based on business needs and traffic conditions. While this decentralization improves efficiency and reduces costs, it can also create “blind spots” within the network where traffic is not adequately monitored. For example, connections that route directly to the cloud bypass traditional data centers, making it harder for network administrators to observe and secure them.
Hybrid Cloud and On-Premises Challenges
In a modern SD-WAN, data flows between on-premises systems, private data centers, and cloud services. This hybrid environment complicates visibility, as it requires monitoring solutions that can capture and analyze data across different types of infrastructure. Traditional monitoring tools often fall short, as they were designed for centralized networks and cannot fully address the unique needs of a hybrid cloud environment.
Managing Multiple Vendors and Technologies
Many SD-WAN deployments involve a mix of vendors and technologies, each with its own set of monitoring tools and protocols. This complexity can make it difficult to gain a cohesive view of the network. Network teams (and Security alike) often find themselves “swivel-chairing” between dashboards, which wastes time and can result in missed insights. To achieve true visibility, organizations need solutions that can integrate data from all vendors into a unified view.
Security and Compliance Concerns
In distributed SD-WAN environments, ensuring data security and regulatory compliance is a significant challenge. With data traveling over various paths—including public networks—there is a higher risk of data exposure and breaches. Compliance requirements such as GDPR and HIPAA demand that data be protected at all times, with audit trails available for review. However, maintaining compliance across a complex, distributed network can be challenging without total visibility and logging capabilities.
3. Essential Components for Effective SD-WAN Visibility
To overcome these challenges, organizations need visibility solutions tailored for SD-WAN environments. Here are the essential components that can make network visibility across SD-WAN more effective:
Unified Monitoring and Management Platform
A unified monitoring platform is key to consolidating data from all SD-WAN connections, devices, and locations. By integrating all data into a single “pane of glass,” IT teams can gain a complete view of the network without switching between different tools or interfaces. These platforms often offer centralized management capabilities, allowing teams to adjust configurations and view network performance holistically.
Real-Time Analytics and Automated Alerts
Real-time analytics are crucial in an SD-WAN environment, where network conditions and traffic patterns can change rapidly. Automated alerts can notify IT teams of any anomalies or issues that could impact performance or security, enabling immediate response. This kind of proactive monitoring prevents small issues from escalating into major disruptions and helps maintain consistent performance.
Traffic Analysis and Anomaly Detection
SD-WAN visibility tools should include advanced traffic analysis and anomaly detection capabilities. These tools can identify unusual traffic patterns that may indicate a security threat or performance bottleneck. For example, an unusual spike in traffic from a particular location might signify a potential DDoS attack, while unexpected slowdowns in application performance could indicate a configuration issue.
Integration with Existing IT and Security Systems
To maximize visibility, SD-WAN monitoring tools should integrate seamlessly with existing IT systems, such as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms and cloud services. These integrations allow data to flow smoothly between systems, creating a comprehensive visibility and security strategy. For example, integrating SD-WAN data with a SIEM can provide context around network events, making it easier to detect and respond to security threats.
4. Practical Steps to Optimize Visibility in SD-WAN
Optimizing SD-WAN visibility requires a strategic approach. Here are five practical steps to help organizations gain better control and insight into their SD-WAN environments:
Step 1: Assess and Map Your Network
The first step is to thoroughly assess the existing network architecture. Mapping all connections, endpoints, and data flows provides a foundation for visibility. This assessment should cover cloud environments, branch locations, and on-premises systems, giving NetOps and SecOps teams a clear view of what needs to be monitored.
Step 2: Choose the Right Visibility Tools
Choosing the right tools is critical for effective SD-WAN monitoring. Tools should support SD-WAN protocols, integrate with multi-cloud environments, and provide real-time analytics. Look for solutions that are scalable and capable of adapting to your organization’s changing needs.
Step 3: Implement End-to-End Traffic Monitoring
End-to-end traffic monitoring provides a comprehensive view of data flows, allowing IT teams to spot inefficiencies and identify potential issues before they impact the network. This approach is especially useful for identifying congestion points, slow application performance, and unusual traffic patterns that might indicate a security risk.
Step 4: Leverage Automation and AI for Anomaly Detection
Automation and AI can significantly enhance SD-WAN visibility by identifying anomalies and automating responses to common issues. For example, AI-driven tools can recognize patterns that indicate a potential security threat and trigger alerts automatically. This capability allows IT teams to respond faster to problems and maintain network stability.
Step 5: Continuously Optimize and Review Visibility Tools
Networks are dynamic, and SD-WAN environments evolve over time. Regularly reviewing and optimizing visibility tools ensures there are no gaps or blind spots and they continue to meet the organization’s needs. Advanced analytics, and deep learning with predictive techniques can be extremely valuable to ensure a means to optimize workflows and network performance continually. This continuous improvement approach allows companies to adapt to new threats, changes in network architecture, and evolving performance requirements.
Conclusion
Achieving optimal visibility across SD-WAN and the broader corporate ecosystem is essential for maintaining network performance, enhancing security, and supporting business goals. SD-WAN’s flexibility is both a benefit and a challenge—while it enables efficient data routing and scalability, it also requires specialized tools and strategies for comprehensive visibility.
Plixer One is purpose-built to meet these demands, providing a centralized platform that offers AI-powered Network Observability and Defense. Plixer delivers real-time monitoring, traffic analysis, and proactive threat detection to help ensure a resilient, secure, high-performing network infrastructure across the entire managed ecosystem. By leveraging data sourced from existing network components, Plixer One enables IT to effectively uncover blind spots, optimize visibility into performance issues, and strengthen security controls where it matters most – empowering organizations to stay agile and secure in today’s complex IT landscape. With Plixer, organizations can confidently maintain a full line of sight into SD-WAN environment and the entire LAN, and cloud environment from a single pane of glass, ensuring seamless operations, better security, and the effectiveness of the network in meeting business goals.
Beyond network observability and defense, Plixer One also provides powerful automation and AI-driven insights, enabling IT teams to detect and respond to potential issues before they escalate. By automating routine tasks and continuously analyzing traffic patterns, Plixer helps organizations stay ahead of performance bottlenecks and security threats, reducing manual intervention and freeing up IT resources for more strategic initiatives. With customizable alerts and detailed reporting, Plixer One ensures that teams are equipped with real-time data and actionable intelligence, supporting smarter decision-making and faster response times. This advanced observability platform not only secures and optimizes SD-WAN environments but also adapts as networks evolve, making Plixer One an invaluable asset for businesses committed to long-term resilience and growth.
About the author: Daniel Luedke is a Network and Security Product Influencer, Technical Product Marketing Expert, and Sales Engineer with over 20 years of experience in the tech industry. Known for his strategic insights and hands-on expertise, Daniel has a proven track record of helping enterprises strengthen their network visibility and security posture. With a background that spans product marketing, sales engineering, and technical consulting, Daniel brings a deep understanding of industry challenges and innovative solutions that drive impactful results.