Computer-WAN(WIde Area Network)

WAN

WAN stands for Wide Area Network. Example of WAN is Internet.

WAN has coverage larger than LAN and mainly used for cellular applications supporting both voice and data applications. Larger network covering entire country or state is referred as WAN. Most WAN are telephone systems. Various technologies are existing to support WAN such as WiMAX, GSM, CDMA, HSPA, LTE, fiber optics, ATM and more. Covers distance upto 1000-10 kilo-meters and also goes upto 100km.

Advantages of WAN

If your company has branches in several locations, a wide area network is a viable option to boost productivity and increase internal communications. Below are some of the more critical business advantages to establishing a WAN:

• Centralizes IT infrastructure — Many consider this WAN’s top advantage. A WAN eliminates the need to buy email or file servers for each office. Instead, you only have to set up one at your head office’s data center. Setting up a WAN also simplifies server management, since you won’t have to support, back-up, host, or physically protect several units. Also, setting up a WAN provides significant economies of scale by providing a central pool of IT resources the whole company can tap into.

• Boosts your privacy — Setting up a WAN allows you to share sensitive data with all your sites without having to send the information over the Internet. Having your WAN encrypt your data before you send it adds an extra layer of protection for any confidential material you may be transferring. With so many hackers out there just dying to steal sensitive corporate data, a business needs all the protection it can get from network intrusions.

• Increases bandwidth — Corporate WAN often use leased lines instead of broadband connections to form the backbone of their networks. Using leased lines offers several pluses for a company, including higher upload speeds than your typical broadband connections. Corporate WAN also generally offer unlimited monthly data transfer limits, so you can use these links as much as you like without boosting costs. Improved communications not only increase efficiency but also boost productivity.

• Eliminates Need for ISDN — WAN can cut costs by eliminating the need to rent expensive ISDN circuits for phone calls. Instead, you can have your WAN carry them. If your WAN provider “prioritizes voice traffic,” you probably won’t see any drop off in voice quality, either. You may also benefit from much cheaper call rates when compared to calls made using ISDN circuits. Some companies use a hybrid approach. They have inbound calls come over ISDN and outbound calls go over the WAN. This approach won’t save you as much money, but it will still lower your bill.

• Guaranteed uptime — Many WAN providers offer business-class support. That means you get a specific amount of uptime monthly, quarterly, or yearly as part of your SLA. They may also offer you round the clock support. Guaranteed uptime is a big plus no matter what your industry. Let’s face it. No company can afford to be down for any length of time in today’s business environment given the stringent demands of modern customers.

• Cuts costs, increase profits — In addition to eliminating the need for ISDN, WAN can help you cut costs and increase profits in a wide variety of other ways. For example, WAN Seliminate or significantly reduce the costs of gathering teams from different offices in one location. Your marketing team in the United States can work closely with your manufacturing team in Germany using video conferencing and email. Saving on the travel costs alone could make investing in a WAN a viable option for you.

WAN also provide some key technical advantages as well. In addition to providing support for a wide variety of applications and a large number of terminals, WAN allow companies to expand their networks through plug-in connections over locations and boost interconnectivity by using gateways, bridges, and routers. Plus, by centralizing network management and monitoring of use and performance, WAN ensure maximum availability and reliability.

Disadvantages of WAN

While WAN provide numerous advantages, they have their share of disadvantages. As with any technology, you need to be aware of these downsides to make an informed decision about WAN. The three most critical downsides are high setup costs, security concerns, and maintenance issues.

• High setup costs — WAN are complicated and complex, so they are rather expensive to set up. Obviously, the bigger the WAN, the costlier it is to set up. One reason that the setup costs are high is the need to connect far-flung remote areas. However, by using public networks, you can set up a WAN using just software (SD-WAN), which reduces setup costs. Keep in mind also that the price/performance ratio of WAN is better now than a decade or so ago.

• Security Concerns —WAN open the way for certain types of internal security breaches, such as unauthorized use, information theft, and malicious damage to files. While many companies have some security in place when it comes to the branches, they deploy the bulk of their security at their data centers to control and manage information sent to their locations. This strategy reduces management costs but limits the company’s ability to deal directly with security breaches at their locations. Some companies also have a hard time compressing and accelerating SSL traffic without significantly increasing security vulnerabilities and creating new management challenges.

• Maintenance Issues — Maintaining a WAN is a challenge, no doubt about it. Guaranteeing that your data center will be up and operating 24/7 is the biggest maintenance challenge of all. Data center managers must be able to detect failures before they occur and reduce data center downtime as much as possible, regardless of the reasons. Downtime is costly, in fact, a study done by infonetics Research estimates that medium and large businesses in North America lose as much as $100 million annually to IT and communication technology downtime.

Other maintenance concerns include link quality and performance degradation, on-demand throughput, load balancing for the data center, bandwidth management, scalability, and data center consolidation and visualization

As the person responsible for your company’s network requirements, you need to consider both the advantages and disadvantages of this powerful tool to make an informed decision on the viability of a WAN for your company.

WAN are powerful business tools. They boost an organization’s communications, competitiveness, and even profitability. But WAN also have their downsides too, including internal security concerns and significant maintenance challenges. Either way, now you have the facts.