SDN vs. SD-WAN at a glance

Feature SDN SD-WAN
Focus Data center control and automation WAN traffic optimization and routing
Control layer Central SDN controller SD-WAN orchestrator
Key benefit Programmability and centralized policy Intelligent traffic steering and cost control
Common use cases Cloud networking, NFV, ACI fabrics Branch-to-cloud routing, hybrid WAN

What is SDN?

SDN separates the control plane from the physical hardware in a network, allowing centralized control and dynamic provisioning. It’s commonly used in data centers, campus networks, and cloud environments to enable fast scaling, policy-driven operations, and automation. Cisco ACI is one of the most widely adopted enterprise SDN implementations.

What is SDN

What is SD-WAN?

SD-WAN applies SDN principles to WAN connectivity, allowing enterprises to steer traffic across Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), broadband, and LTE links based on policies. Instead of just checking if links are up, SD-WAN chooses paths dynamically based on real-time performance. Popular SD-WAN implementations include Cisco Meraki and VMware VeloCloud.

Why monitor your VMware VeloCloud SD WAN

SDN vs. SD-WAN: Key differences and overlaps

While SDN is typically deployed in data centers to manage internal network paths, SD-WAN optimizes WAN links between branch offices, data centers, and the cloud. They share a policy-driven framework and centralized control but operate in different parts of the enterprise network.

Aspect SDN SD-WAN
Location LAN, data center WAN, Edge
Protocols OpenFlow, VXLAN IPSec, GRE, DPI
Visibility Switch fabric, tenants, segments WAN links, application flows

Why SDN and SD-WAN matter for modern enterprises

Modern enterprise networks are more complex than ever, with cloud-native apps, video conferencing, real-time collaboration, and massive remote work requirements. SDN and SD-WAN help by delivering:

tick icon Centralized control.

tick icon Policy enforcement.

tick icon Application-aware routing.

tick icon Reduced operational complexity.

But control is only half the equation—visibility into performance is what turns SDN and SD-WAN from buzzwords into real business enablers.

Why SDN and SD-WAN matter for modern enterprises

The role of monitoring in SDN and SD-WAN

Without visibility into how your network paths are behaving, how your flows are distributed, and whether your policies are working, you're flying blind. Monitoring your SDN and SD-WAN environment bridges the gap between intent and execution.

Top metrics for monitoring SDN and SD-WAN performance

In a dynamic, flow-based SDN environment, what you track and how you track it defines how well your network performs. So, what metrics actually matter when it comes to SDN performance monitoring for enterprises?

Let's break it down by asking some real-world questions and identify data points you can collect right now using Site24x7's SDN and SD-WAN monitoring for Cisco Meraki, Cisco ACI, and VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN.

Top metrics to track with Site24x7

Is your bandwidth being consumed as expected?

When dynamically steering traffic across hybrid WAN links, it's not enough to know whether the link is up—you need to understand how it's performing. Are mission-critical apps monopolizing WAN bandwidth? Are backups or software updates chewing up your primary link during business hours? Find out by tracking bandwidth-specific metrics.

Monitor these in Site24x7

Bandwidth usage per link icon

Bandwidth usage per link

Know how much bandwidth is being consumed on each path.

Inbound and outbound traffic rates icon

Inbound and outbound traffic rates

Easily identify spikes and abnormal usage across any WAN interface.

The volume of data transferred icon

The volume of data transferred

Track usage trends over time to inform capacity planning and avoid surprise overages

How healthy is your path performance, really?

SDN and SD-WAN deliver better application experiences by routing traffic based on path performance. But that logic is only as good as the data behind it. Let's be real:

If your voice traffic is riding a path with 3% packet loss and 50ms jitter, no amount of policy tweaking will fix your users' complaints. Performance metrics that focus on jitter or latency will help you understand where the delay is so that you can take appropriate action.

With Site24x7, you can monitor

Packet loss icon

Packet loss (inbound and outbound)

Find out if packets are being silently dropped en route.

Jitter icon

Jitter (inbound and outbound)

Crucial for real-time traffic like VoIP, video, and remote desktops.

Latency icon

Latency (inbound and outbound)

Track the delay between your SD-WAN edges and application endpoints.

Are your SD-WAN edge devices keeping up?

Your SD-WAN edge appliances are the frontline workers of your network. They make real-time routing decisions, enforce policies, and keep traffic flowing between the cloud, branch, and data center. In Cisco ACI monitoring, you can monitor the health of spine and leaf switches and tenant-level configurations, making sure your policy-driven fabric is running clean.

With Site24x7, you can monitor

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CPU and memory usage

High resource consumption can slow down route recalculations or deep packet inspection (DPI).

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Interface-level statistics

Including input/output errors, discards, and utilization for every port.

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Reachability and response time

rack the availability of every SD-WAN node from a global or internal probe.

What's really happening with flow-based traffic?

In SDN and SD-WAN, flows are king. Every application stream is treated as a flow, and your performance visibility depends on your ability to inspect and analyze those flows. This flow-level visibility lets you answer questions like: Why did that 9am meeting tank the rest of the branch's performance? What app consumed 80% of our LTE backup link?

Site24x7 helps you monitor

Top applications by traffic volume icon

Top applications by traffic volume

Easily identify which apps are dominating your links .

iTop source and destination IPs icon

Top source and destination IPs

Pinpoint who's generating or receiving the most traffic at any given time.

Traffic per application category icon

Traffic per application category

Break down traffic into business, social media, file-sharing, and more using DPI-based classification.

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Traffic by protocol (TCP/UDP/ICMP)

Understand protocol-level behavior and detect anomalies like floods or scans.

Are your policies and network behaviors aligned?

SDN success isn't just about forwarding traffic—it's about enforcing intent through policy. That means QoS, traffic shaping, and secure routing need to be tracked and verified continuously.

While Site24x7 focuses on performance and traffic-level insights, you can still use those metrics to validate whether your routing and segmentation policies are delivering on their intent:

1

Is high-priority traffic always taking the fastest, lowest-loss path?

2

Is bulk traffic being steered to lower-cost links during off-peak hours?

3

Are unexpected apps showing up in business-critical categories?

Combining policies with alerting and anomaly detection helps you close the loop between configuration and real-world performance.

Centralized visibility that's SDN-friendly and cloud-native

Site24x7 offers a single dashboard to monitor multiple networks in one dashboard using APIs or SNMP.

With Site24x7, you get:

tick icon Native support for Cisco Meraki, Cisco ACI, and VMware VeloCloud.

tick icon Real-time data for performance, traffic, and device configuration.

Centralized visibility that's SDN-friendly and cloud-native

Monitoring is the foundation of SDN performance

You can have the smartest SD-WAN controller, the most optimized flow rules, and the best-intentioned policies, but if you're not monitoring the right metrics, you'll always be troubleshooting in the dark.

With Site24x7's SDN and SD-WAN monitoring, you're not just collecting data—you're gaining visibility into how your SDN is behaving in the real world, in real time.

Want to level up your SDN monitoring?

Explore how Site24x7 helps enterprises monitor and optimize SD-WAN and SDN environments with deep insights across flow, path, and device layers—for Cisco Meraki, Cisco ACI, and VMware VeloCloud.