Why Implement a Hybrid WAN?

Cost: Hybrid WANs supplement an enterprise WAN service such as MPLS with low-cost internet bandwidth – a major cost savings. Bandwidth requirements are growing quickly, but enterprises can’t always put traffic on MPLS because it would be prohibitively expensive. This new hybrid design enables organizations to combine multiple internet connections with an enterprise-class WAN that has a high quality of service (QoS). Failover and Load-sharing: Many companies that use a hybrid WAN use the internet link to access sites and use their MPLS as the WAN link for business applications. Only when a failure occurs in the MPLS network do organizations use the internet link for WAN traffic. However, there can be quality issues in the MPLS network, and there are times when the internet link might be higher quality. You should not need a full outage to failover. Unpredictable Bandwidth: aggregating broadband links to deliver high performance and reliability mitigates the risk of unpredictable bandwidth.