Supporting the financial services sector with SD-WAN

The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry is increasingly taking a digital approach, moving infrastructure and applications to the cloud and introducing technologies, such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and machine learning. This digitisation has been accelerated by the adoption of hybrid working, while meeting the demand for a better customer experience.

In addition, the BFSI industry continues to be a target for cyber-attackers and is subject to stringent regulatory and compliance requirements. These are over and above the pressure for companies to optimise costs and efficiencies.

“Leveraging Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) can help BFSI organisations overcome these challenges now and into the future. SD-WAN offers the opportunity to manage the network more effectively, support a hybrid working model, enhance cybersecurity and increase agility, to take advantage of digital transformation,” says Kevin Odudoh, executive head of the BFSI sector at Vodacom Business.

BENEFITS OF SD-WAN

A key advantage of SD-WAN is improved network performance. SD-WAN provides greater bandwidth and reduces congestion across multiple connection points on any available underlay connectivity service. The technology uses multiple paths for data traffic, selecting the best route while ensuring reliability in the event of a connection failure. Furthermore, this offers faster and stable application performance, critical in delivering superior customer experience.

SD-WAN also offers flexibility, allowing users to connect to multiple technologies, applications and services, conveniently and remotely. For example, a bank call centre employee can work from home and access the network simply through a supplied SD-WAN router or device that is connected to any internet service, whether that’s fixed or wireless.

“The network is managed centrally, reducing the time and resources necessary to manage the network, update security and enable compliance, which is a benefit for BFSI organisations that have sites locally and globally, as well as remote employees. This together with SD-WAN’s use of less expensive Internet connections rather than dedicated connections such as MPLS, saves costs in maintaining a wide area network,” adds Odudoh.

In addition, SD-WAN can use Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections to encrypt data traffic, which increases security when transmitting sensitive information such as financial transactions. SD-WAN also combines managed security services, such as firewalls, ensuring a secure infrastructure and highquality performance.

SELECTING THE RIGHT SD-WAN PARTNER

Vodacom Business was the first telecommunications operator in Africa to achieve the prestigious MEF3.0 SD-WAN certification in 2020. This certification enables providers to confirm that their solutions comply with the highest industry standards for performance, assurance and agility.

With the expertise to meet the BFSI sector’s evolving needs, Vodacom Business provides on-demand support throughout the transition to SD-WAN and afterwards. Clients are also able to access Vodacom’s free LTE back-up solution, suitable for sites with less bandwidth, such as outlying branches and ATMs, and benefit from end-to-end security using Secure Access Service Edge.

“Based on our learnings and that of our multi-vendor partners over the past three years, Vodacom Business offers leading SD-WAN technology that is flexible, reliable, cost-effective and secure. In using our own extensive infrastructure, our trusted partner base and our support services, BFSI clients can feel assured that Vodacom’s SD-WAN enables them to reap the benefits of digitisation in the long run,” concludes Ermano Quartero, executive head of Fixed Line Centre of Excellence at Vodacom Business. S

Ermano Quartero, Executive Head of Fixed Line Centre of Excellence, Vodacom Business.

Kevin Odudoh, Executive Head, BFSI Sector, Vodacom Business.