ACCEDIAN | SOLUTION BRIEF

How to Assure Application

Quality of Experience for
SD-WAN
Go beyond quality of service (QoS) visibility
LIMITATIONS OF
WHY SD-WAN?
SD-WAN
The value proposition for software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) varies
somewhat depending on whether the organization deploying it is a
PERFORMANCE
communications service provider (CSP), managed service provider (MSP), or MONITORING
an enterprise. Some of the main benefits are:
True, SD-WAN solutions provide
visibility into such things as network
• Access independence
performance between SD-WAN
• More bandwidth for less money platforms or bandwidth/capacity
• Cloud migration (remote site direct internet connection to the cloud) usage for top protocols. But, because
• Application performance visibility over the network these metrics are provided within
the walls of the network, they cover
• Automated provisioning
application performance from
• Centralized policy control and management WAN edge to WAN edge only—not
to the true edge (the end user’s
But, there’s a very important item missing from this list: quality of experience).
experience (QoE) visibility at the true edge of application delivery—the end These limitations create problematic
user. SD-WAN vendors offers some type of quality of service (QoS) visibility, QoE visibility gaps:
but they do not extend this to true application QoE.

• No way to pinpoint location/

““ SD-WAN vendor solutions monitor quality of

service but not user experience.
cause of application performance
degradations
• Insufficient granularity to
perform troubleshooting or
WAN Edge optimization across the entire
application delivery chain
SD-WAN Overlay Network

SD-WAN

APPS
 FROM NETWORK QOS TO
APPLICATION QOE AT THE
REAL EDGE
Measuring the real user experience requires full visibility into:

• Network performance
• Application delivery (through the network and infrastructure)
• Application transaction delay

If any one of these is missing, it’s not possible to have

complete QoE visibility. SD-WAN vendor solutions fall short
because they do not offer:

• Visibility into the underlay network

• Visibility into end user application QoE
• Visibility into the root cause of application performance
degradation

App
Network App
Transaction
Performance Delivery
Delay

““ Accedian’s
SkyLIGHT
solution extends
This is where SD-WAN vendor network performance visibility falls
performance
short, and where Accedian’s SkyLIGHT PVX solution emerges
to the fore. SkyLIGHT fills in these gaps, extending performance visibility to the real
visibility to the real edge and going beyond QoS to true QoE. edge, for true QoE
assurance.

SOLUTION BRIEF | HOW TO ASSURE APPLICATION QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE FOR SD-WAN

 HERE’S HOW THAT WORKS
FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF
ORGANIZATIONS:
• As the owners of access and delivery networks,
communications service providers (CSPs) can achieve
deeper QoS and full QoE visibility using SKyLIGHT VCX (active
monitoring and service activation testing/SAT for the underlay
network) and SkyLIGHT PVX for application performance
assurance.
• Being purveyors of SD-WAN as a service, managed service
providers (MSPs) can use SkyLIGHT PVX to add application-
assured QoE to differentiate their services and snap on new
revenue streams.
• To effectively deliver applications, enterprises must be able to
see and analyze network, infrastructure, and application code
performance. SkyLIGHT PVX covers all three, unlike SD-WAN
vendor tools that are limited to network monitoring.

WAN Edge to WAN Edge

Visibility

SD-WAN Overlay Network

SD-WAN
SD-WAN

SD-WAN

Accedian Accedian
Real User QoE Real User QoE
APPS

In short, SkyLIGHT serves as a complement to SD-WAN monitoring

capabilities, adding depth (underlay network monitoring) and
breadth (application QoE) performance visibility and offering one
single source of ‘truth’ about user experience.

SOLUTION BRIEF | HOW TO ASSURE APPLICATION QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE FOR SD-WAN

 About Accedian
Accedian delivers exceptional end-to-end
network and application performance
visibility, for control over the best
possible user experience.

Full visibility across network services and

application chains—spanning virtualized,
cloud, software-defined, and physical
infrastructure—empowers service
providers and enterprises to embrace
transformation, make most efficient
use of digital assets to realize business
goals, and strengthen their competitive
position.

Accedian is an established expert at

instrumenting networks of every size,
with SkyLIGHT™ platform solutions that
scale to monitor multinational networks.

Since 2005, Accedian has partnered with

its customers to deliver solutions across
the globe, helping them and their users
Experience Performance.

Learn more at accedian.com/enterprise.

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