Connecting several offices usually brings two options onto the table: MPLS and SD-WAN. They both carry traffic between sites. They're not interchangeable, and the wrong choice shows up in cost and in how quickly you can add a location.
What is MPLS?
Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a private wide-area network. Traffic between your offices stays on the carrier's network and never uses the public internet. Each packet receives a label and follows a set path through that network.
Businesses have used MPLS as their main WAN for more than twenty years. It gives you:
- Guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS)
- Predictable latency and jitter
- Complete isolation from internet traffic
- High reliability
What is SD-WAN?
Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) sits as a software overlay across more than one internet circuit. You don't have to put every site on a costly MPLS link. Broadband, leased lines and 4G/5G can all sit underneath it.
SD-WAN gives you:
- Routing that follows the needs of each application
- Automatic failover between circuits
- A single place to manage the network and see how it is performing
- Typically 40–60% lower cost than MPLS
Head-to-head comparison
| Factor | MPLS | SD-WAN | |--------|------|--------| | Cost | Higher, because circuits are dedicated | Lower, because it can use ordinary broadband | | Flexibility | Changes often take weeks | Policy updates in minutes | | Cloud performance | Traffic usually returns to a data centre first | Each site can break out to the cloud directly | | Security | Private from the start | Encrypted overlay plus firewall | | Management | Handled by the carrier | One central portal | | Failover | Manual and slow | Automatic, often under a second |
When MPLS is the right choice
MPLS still fits when:
- You operate in a regulated industry (financial services, healthcare, legal) and data must stay off the public internet
- You need guaranteed latency for real-time systems such as trading platforms
- You run legacy applications that suffer when packets are lost or jitter rises
- Your compliance rules require a private WAN
When SD-WAN is the better fit
SD-WAN is usually the better choice when:
- You run cloud services such as Microsoft 365, Azure, AWS or other SaaS
- You have several sites and want to cut WAN spend
- You need a faster rollout, with a new office live in days, while MPLS provisioning often runs to weeks
- You want one view of application performance across every site
Automation and the WAN
Workflow automation and document processing sit in the cloud. They only work if each site can reach Microsoft 365 or Azure without a long detour. MPLS often sends branch traffic back through a head office first. SD-WAN can break that traffic out locally. Predictive monitoring watches the circuits so a weakening link is spotted before the service degrades.
Using both
A hybrid model is common: SD-WAN as the overlay, MPLS for the traffic that needs a private path and a guaranteed delay. Everyday cloud traffic and failover sit on the overlay. The MPLS core stays for the flows that cannot vary.
How Wanzo can help
Wanzo looks at your sites, the applications they run and the compliance rules you have to meet, then recommends MPLS, SD-WAN or a mix. We manage it on a monthly retainer, with 24/7 monitoring and a four-hour response commitment.
If you're connecting more than one office, get in touch. Tell us where the sites are. We'll come back with a recommendation.