HOW I EXPLAINED SD-WAN TO MY 83-YEAR OLD DAD

On Sunday we visited my Dad in Old Woking. He’s been unable to walk for 8 years or so, but as it was another glorious day, we persuaded him to let us take him to the local pub, about a mile away from the house. You really get to notice every bump and crack in the side walk when you are pushing a hefty man in a wheel chair, and what should have been a 15-minute walk stretched to a 45 min full body work-out.  

But this did give us loads of time to talk. Once we’d covered football, the local mangy fox, BoJo and our differences on Brexit, he turned to me and said – “I still don’t understand what it is you do”.  Now to put this in context – This is the man who told me in 1998 that I was making a huge mistake by leaving my job in aeronautical engineering to study an MCSE and take up a job in an internet call centre. “This internet thing won’t last” he said then. He sure was wrong but to be fair, he has moved on a bit since – He knows how to find “his” music on the internet, he can read (but not send) email, he’s got a Facebook account and admits that the Internet will probably outlive him.

People say that you can only explain something in very simple terms if you really understand your subject, so challenge accepted! I used the simple roads analogy to try and explain the basic concept of SD-WAN to him.

“Let’s imagine that you have to travel from point A to point B, and back again. From your house, you can use a toll road, a motorway, an A road, a country lane or you could even ditch the car and walk across the fields. These roads represent the different types of connections that you may have. MPLS, dedicated Internet access, FTTC, ADSL, 4G and each one will probably have a different way of getting you to point B. (don’t worry too much about these terms, think about the roads) Some journeys will be faster, some will be longer, some will be more expensive, and some will even run alongside each other.” He’s still with me – Good!

“Now which road would you take Dad?” and he replied, “I’m in no hurry, I’d cruise down the country roads on my Harley”. “Perfect – think of yourself as email Dad, you’re an email (chuckle) and you’ve been sent to point B on the country lane – you’ll get there in good time, but you don’t have to race there.  Which path do you think a police car might take?” and his answer was of course “the motorway” – usually the quickest path, but costs more in petrol. – He’s getting the concept now.

“Okay Dad” I said, “now what if there was a traffic jam on the motorway, the police car would be slowed right down, even though you would expect him to be on the fastest route…… Imagine that I did the same journey, but I had a very clever self-driving car with SAT-NAV that knew what the traffic was like on every inch of every road and diverted me around all of the traffic jams, accidents, diversions and sheep in the road, and got me to point B in the shortest possible time, using a combination of all available roads. I could start off on the motor way, but then get routed around the traffic jam, onto an A road and arrive at Point B via a country lane, bypassing that busy roundabout. And then coming back, I could use an entirely different route, but it would still be the quickest one. Think of an SD-WAN box as an intelligent SAT-NAV constantly making sure that you follow the best route to get to Point B, without you having make any manual changes”

“Ah” he said, not to be outdone “What happens if all the roads are blocked” “Then Dad” I said, “I’d take the train (switching from traditional technologies and using 4G connectivity as an option within SD-WAN)” He nods, straightens his cowboy (thinks he’s John Wayne) hat, and says “Yip I see”

I live for those light-bulb moments when speaking with customers, but it’s very seldom that I get one from my Dad…Job done! – he finally understands the very basics of SD-WAN!

But I didn’t leave it there. As we got to the pub, one of the doors (with the ramp) was closed and we had to walk around and use the entrance on the other side. “why don’t they just open that door, it would be much easier?” Dad said. I explained that it was the emergency exit, and he replied that it was silly and a hassle to have it but not use it. I smiled and said, “Yes indeed Dad, why have a fully working door (referring to your back-up circuits as available bandwidth in an SD-WAN context) that you hardly ever use…….”

At SDWAN Solutions we get excited talking about how SD-WAN technology can transform the underlying network of businesses of any size and in any vertical. We have clever SD-WAN based solutions to solve most connectivity problems, even if your business or school only has one site. If the glorious UK summer continues, I foresee many similar outings, with my Dad becoming quite the technology expert over the following Sundays I’m sure!*

*** RIP DAD – 2 JULY 2019 ***