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Linking two to five offices without expensive MPLS lines.

SD-WAN sounds enterprise but for SMBs with several offices it is often cheaper and simpler than hand-built IPsec tunnels. Products like FortiGate SD-WAN, Meraki MX, UniFi UID and a Tailscale subnet router cover different price tiers. The point is one console managing every site, otherwise it is just site-to-site VPN with marketing.

Try this first

  1. 1Decide the requirement: only inter-site access (Tailscale or UniFi will do) or also QoS, app-aware routing and failover (then Meraki or Fortinet).
  2. 2Count uplinks per site, SD-WAN only pays off if at least HQ and big sites have a second WAN (fiber + 5G or fiber + DSL).
  3. 3Get quotes including 3-year licences, Meraki licences are the real cost, not the hardware.
  4. 4Test failover by pulling one WAN cable on a test box, see how long a VoIP call holds.
  5. 5Document per site: local subnet, gateway, WAN IPs, ISP support contact. Otherwise a colleague is stuck while you are on holiday.

When to bring us in

You have international sites or strict data-residency rules (EU-only traffic): pure SD-WAN clouds from US vendors do not pass without extra contracts, pick an EU-sovereign partner or a self-hosted option.

See also

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