Uplevel Introduces SD-WAN Optimized for SMBs

It’s took SD-WAN a few years of cutting its teeth, so to speak, but today there is no denying this transformational technology is taking to main street. The path to the cloud is software-defined, enabling a new day in networking ushering organizations over the threshold of the digital age.

Uplevel Systems announced the arrival of SD-WAN to its portfolio of networking solutions. The “Main Street SD-WAN” is optimized for SMBs, promises robust Internet and VoIP quality, at a pocket friendly price point.

"Any business with multiple sites, or that uses Internet phone systems, stands to benefit from SD-WAN's improved performance while dramatically reducing communications costs," says Glenn Chagnot, VP, Business Development for Uplevel Systems. "But despite the operational efficiencies, SD-WAN proves cost-prohibitive for smaller companies — until now." 

What scares SMBs from investing in SD-WAN is the need to purchase functions they do not require.  Uplevel addresses the problem by right-sizing its managed SMB services. With the Uplevel SD-WAN, an organization avoids exorbitant upfront costs. The SMB pays $50 a month – all in. This is quite a bit of savings, as equipment required for deployment could cost upward of $3,000 across multiple sites.  The savings start to add up rather quickly, reducing ongoing costs by 75 percent at the very least.  

The managed services platform includes integrated VoIP quality of service (QoS) capabilities.  The deployment is able to minimize latency and protect application performance with only two Internet connections. The platform delivers failover and load balancing via the duo of connections, promising protection against complete outages.

"Businesses often deploy voice over IP (VoIP) to gain functionality and then discover that call quality suffers when the Internet gets busy," says Chagnot. "SD-WAN solves this problem by making Internet connections more reliable, but at a price most small businesses cannot afford. The Uplevel service strips away extraneous SD-WAN cost and features to deliver exceptional call quality and resiliency at roughly a quarter 25% of the price of traditional services."

What’s in your WAN?