{"id":14791,"date":"2017-04-04T15:25:48","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T15:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/software-defined-wide-area-network\/"},"modified":"2018-09-05T14:56:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T14:56:44","slug":"software-defined-wide-area-network","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32488\/software-defined-wide-area-network-sd-wan","title":{"rendered":"Software-Defined Wide Area Network"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_software-defined_wide_area_network_mean\">What Does Software-Defined Wide Area Network Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) is a wide area network that utilizes software components to control network operations. Specific management software virtualizes networking hardware in the same way that hypervisors and other components virtualize data center operations.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_software-defined_wide_area_network\">Techopedia Explains Software-Defined Wide Area Network<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A wide area network is defined as a network that includes an extensive geographical footprint &ndash; contrasted to a local area network (LAN), which is commonly isolated in one home or business office. The software control mechanism in the SD-WAN acts to manage all of these different geographic pieces of the wide area network, in order to help companies and other stakeholders with performance and efficiency, among other things.<\/p>\n<p>The SD-WAN typically helps these wide area networks to handle network traffic with specific protocols, while providing a user-intuitive interface. They may also support features like firewalls, gateways and virtual private network tools for privacy. An SD-WAN can also help with redundancy, backup and recovery, and troubleshooting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Software-Defined Wide Area Network Mean? A software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) is a wide area network that utilizes software components to control network operations. Specific management software virtualizes networking hardware in the same way that hypervisors and other components virtualize data center operations. Techopedia Explains Software-Defined Wide Area Network A wide area network [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[224,276,256,236,219],"class_list":["post-14791","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-containers-virtualization","definitioncat-edge-computing","definitioncat-emerging-technology","definitioncat-network-management","definitioncat-networks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Software-Defined Wide Area Network and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Software-Defined Wide Area Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Software-Defined Wide Area Network and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32488\/software-defined-wide-area-network-sd-wan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-05T14:56:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32488\/software-defined-wide-area-network-sd-wan#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32488\/software-defined-wide-area-network-sd-wan\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Software-Defined Wide Area Network\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-04T15:25:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-05T14:56:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32488\/software-defined-wide-area-network-sd-wan\"},\"wordCount\":171,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32488\/software-defined-wide-area-network-sd-wan#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32488\/software-defined-wide-area-network-sd-wan\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32488\/software-defined-wide-area-network-sd-wan\",\"name\":\"What is a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)? 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