If your business has more than one office, you've probably come across two acronyms: MPLS and SD-WAN. Both connect your sites. Both have merits. But they're built for different eras of networking — and choosing the wrong one can cost you significantly.
What is MPLS?
Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a private WAN technology that routes traffic between your sites without ever touching the public internet. Each packet is labelled and forwarded along a pre-determined path through the carrier's network.
MPLS has been the gold standard for enterprise WANs for over two decades. It offers:
- Guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS)
- Predictable latency and jitter
- Complete traffic isolation from the internet
- High reliability
What is SD-WAN?
Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) is a newer approach that creates an intelligent overlay across multiple internet connections. Instead of relying on a single expensive MPLS circuit, SD-WAN can use a mix of broadband, leased lines and 4G/5G connections.
SD-WAN provides:
- Application-aware traffic routing
- Automatic failover between circuits
- Centralised management and visibility
- Typically 40–60% lower cost than MPLS
Head-to-head comparison
| Factor | MPLS | SD-WAN | |--------|------|--------| | Cost | Higher — dedicated circuits | Lower — uses commodity broadband | | Flexibility | Rigid — changes take weeks | Agile — policy changes in minutes | | Cloud performance | Backhaul to data centre | Direct cloud breakout at each site | | Security | Private by design | Encrypted overlay + firewall | | Management | Carrier-managed | Centrally managed portal | | Failover | Manual/slow | Automatic, sub-second |
When to choose MPLS
MPLS is still the right choice when:
- You're in a regulated industry (financial services, healthcare, legal) where data must never traverse the public internet
- You need guaranteed latency for real-time applications like trading platforms
- You have legacy applications that are sensitive to packet loss or jitter
- Your compliance framework explicitly requires private WAN connectivity
When to choose SD-WAN
SD-WAN is typically better when:
- You're a cloud-first business using Microsoft 365, Azure, AWS or SaaS applications
- You have multiple sites and want to reduce WAN costs
- You need rapid deployment — new sites can be live in days, not weeks
- You want visibility and control over application performance across all sites
The hybrid approach
Many businesses are moving to a hybrid model: SD-WAN as the overlay, with an MPLS core for the most critical traffic. This gives you the cost efficiency and agility of SD-WAN with the guaranteed performance of MPLS where it matters most.
How Wanzo helps
Wanzo is carrier-agnostic and technology-agnostic. We'll assess your sites, your applications and your compliance requirements — then recommend the right architecture. Whether that's pure SD-WAN, pure MPLS, or a hybrid design.