Airtel’s SD-WAN Advantage: Enhancing network performance for business agility

Traditional network infrastructures must be updated in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, where digital transformation is the norm. The need for flexibility, agility, and security has led industries like banking, manufacturing, and retail to seek next-gen network solutions. Airtel’s managed SD-WAN emerges as a powerful tool to meet these demands, offering advantages that redefine network performance and business operations.

Automated Flexibility and Agility

Airtel Managed SD-WAN is an automated and centrally managed solution that ensures seamless connectivity across various locations and connection types. It streamlines traffic flow and boosts bandwidth on demand, reducing delays and maximising WAN benefits.

Dynamic load balancing, application prioritisation, and transport neutrality allow businesses to adapt to changing business requirements swiftly.

Solutions Tailored to Your Needs

Airtel’s bespoke approach ensures that the SD-WAN solution is tailored to specific business needs. For example, Airtel recently collaborated with a multinational manufacturing firm to implement a customised SD-WAN solution. By understanding their complex network requirements and leveraging our extensive expertise, we designed a solution that enhanced their network performance and provided robust security measures tailored to their industry-specific challenges. This bespoke approach met and exceeded their expectations, demonstrating our commitment to delivering tailored solutions that drive business success.

End-to-end Manageability for Simplified Operations

From planning to deployment and ongoing support, Airtel offers comprehensive services, ensuring seamless lifecycle management. With an all-in-one centralised monitoring solution and unified network and firewall features, businesses no longer need to be stuck with complex network infrastructure, streamlining operations.

Optimised Performance and Security

Airtel’s SD-WAN enhances WAN performance through intelligent traffic routeing and offers public and private WAN path options. Centralised control and streamlined management through a single pane of glass interface enable efficient policy changes. Moreover, maximum security is ensured with edge-to-edge encryption and complete control over access privileges.

Industry-Specific Advantages 

Powering Smart Manufacturing Operations:

• Reduces OPEX, capex, and time-to-market by optimising IIoT operation across processes
• Improves scalability, uptime, and network performance per site
• Enhances security implementation with ZTNA, UTM, and IPS/IDS deployment.

Building Retail Stores of Tomorrow:

• Uptime and Availability:

  SD-WAN ensures high uptime and availability by utilizing multiple network links. If one link experiences downtime or congestion, the SD-WAN automatically reroutes traffic through other available links, ensuring seamless operations and preventing disruptions for retail stores.

• End-to-End Visibility:

  SD-WAN provides comprehensive end-to-end visibility into network performance and application usage across all retail store locations. This visibility allows IT teams to monitor and troubleshoot issues proactively, ensuring optimal performance and minimizing downtime.

• Enhanced Customer Experience:

  Retail stores can scale up bandwidth dynamically during peak times or promotional events using SD-WAN. This flexibility ensures that customer-facing applications, such as point-of-sale systems and digital signage, operate smoothly without slowdowns or latency issues, thereby enhancing the overall customer experience.

• Selling Connectivity:

  SD-WAN enables retail stores to offer reliable and secure connectivity options to customers. By leveraging SD-WAN capabilities, stores can provide Wi-Fi access, guest networks, and personalized services that enhance customer engagement and satisfaction. This connectivity can also be monetized through value-added services, such as premium Wi-Fi access or location-based marketing initiatives.

Leveraging Airtel Intelligent VPN for Retail:

Centralised Monitoring and Management: 

Airtel’s Intelligent VPN remotely enables centralised monitoring and management of retail network infrastructure, eliminating the need for an in-store IT presence. This centralised approach allows IT teams to efficiently oversee network performance, troubleshoot issues remotely, and ensure compliance with security policies across multiple retail locations.

• Example: Airtel’s VPN solution helped a national retail chain reduce IT support costs by 30% through centralised management and proactive maintenance.

Improved Network Agility for Prioritizing Retail-Specific Apps:

Airtel’s SD-WAN offers enhanced network agility, allowing retail stores to prioritise critical applications such as point-of-sale systems, inventory management, and customer loyalty programs. This prioritisation ensures that essential retail operations run smoothly, even during peak traffic or promotional events.

• Data Point: Retailers using Airtel’s SD-WAN reported a 25% increase in transaction speed at checkout counters due to optimised network prioritisation.

Always Connected” Stores with Seamless Access to Retail Apps:

Airtel ensures that retail stores remain “always connected” by providing reliable and secure access to retail applications and services. This includes uninterrupted connectivity for customer-facing services like Wi-Fi, digital signage, and mobile payment systems, enhancing the overall customer experience.

• Example: Airtel’s SD-WAN solution enabled a regional retail chain to achieve 99.99% uptime across its stores, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and increased sales.

End-to-End Managed Services with Integrated WAN and Bandwidth Solutions:

Airtel offers end-to-end managed services that integrate WAN and bandwidth solutions tailored to the specific needs of retail environments. This includes proactive network monitoring, bandwidth optimisation, and seamless scalability to support retail growth and seasonal fluctuations in demand.

• Data Point: Airtel’s managed services helped a global retail brand reduce network downtime by 50% through proactive monitoring and capacity planning.

In conclusion, Airtel’s Managed SD-WAN emerges as a transformative solution for businesses seeking enhanced network performance, agility, and security in 2024 and beyond. By leveraging Airtel’s expertise and cutting-edge technology, organisations can confidently embark on a journey towards digital transformation.