SD-WAN is short for Software-Defined Wide Area Network. A wide area network is any connectivity outside of your local premises or local area network (LAN). This could be as simple as your connection to the internet or as complex as a secured corporate or government inter-site private network. SD-WAN takes the WAN services you use and puts an abstracted management interface in front of it, a single secure cloud-based portal allowing you to view, test, change and plan the way your WAN works. SD-WAN also allows you to use multiple WAN links as if they were a single link opening up new possibilities for leveraging the investment you make in your WAN for scalability, failover and traffic prioritisation.