40-70% Cost Savings · Zero Disruption · Integrated Security

MPLS to SD-WAN Migration
Faster, Cheaper, More Secure

Replace expensive MPLS circuits with application-aware SD-WAN. Ogma designs, deploys, and manages your SD-WAN transformation — from architecture planning through branch rollout to MPLS decommission.

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MPLS Was Built for a Different Era

MPLS was designed when applications lived in the data centre and internet traffic was minimal. Today, 70-80% of branch traffic is SaaS-bound — Microsoft 365, Salesforce, SAP S/4HANA, Zoom. MPLS forces this traffic through the data centre (hair-pinning), adding latency and wasting expensive bandwidth.

MPLS circuits take 60-90 days to provision, cannot scale on demand, and cost 5-10x more per Mbps than broadband. Adding a new branch to an MPLS network means a new circuit order, router deployment, and weeks of waiting.

SD-WAN solves all of this — application-aware routing over any transport (broadband, LTE, DIA, MPLS), direct cloud access at the branch, encrypted overlays, and centralised management for hundreds of sites.

40-70%
WAN Cost Reduction
5-10x
More Bandwidth per ₹
<1 Day
Branch Deployment Time
NGFW
Integrated Security

MPLS vs SD-WAN — Architecture Comparison

Side-by-side technical comparison of traditional MPLS and modern SD-WAN architectures.

Capability Traditional MPLS SD-WAN (FortiGate)
Transport Dedicated MPLS circuits from single provider Any transport — broadband, DIA, LTE/5G, MPLS
Cost per Mbps High (dedicated bandwidth pricing) Low (commodity internet pricing)
SaaS Access Backhauled through data centre (added latency) Direct internet breakout at branch
Application Awareness Basic QoS (DSCP marking) Deep packet inspection, per-app SLA steering
Encryption None (private but not encrypted) IPsec AES-256 on all tunnels
Security Separate firewall/IPS at each site Integrated NGFW + IPS + SSL inspection
New Site Provisioning 60-90 days (circuit installation) Hours (zero-touch provisioning)
Bandwidth Scaling Contract upgrade (weeks to months) Add links dynamically (broadband, LTE)
Centralised Management Provider-managed, limited visibility FortiManager — full config, monitoring, analytics
Failover Secondary MPLS or no redundancy Sub-second failover across any transport

Migration Methodology

1

WAN Assessment & Discovery

Inventory all sites, MPLS circuits, bandwidth utilisation, application traffic patterns, and SLA requirements. Identify critical applications, latency-sensitive traffic, and compliance constraints. Map existing router configurations and routing topology.

2

Architecture Design

Design the SD-WAN overlay topology — hub-spoke, full-mesh, or regional hub. Define SLA policies for each application class. Plan transport diversity per site (dual broadband, broadband + LTE, or broadband + MPLS hybrid). Size FortiGate appliances per branch throughput.

3

ISP Procurement & Staging

Order broadband/DIA circuits from diverse ISPs per site. Procure and pre-stage FortiGate appliances with base configuration, firmware, and zero-touch provisioning templates. Configure FortiManager for centralised deployment. Build lab validation environment.

4

Pilot Deployment

Deploy SD-WAN at 2-3 pilot branches (hub + spoke). Run in parallel with MPLS for 2-4 weeks. Validate application SLA performance, failover behaviour, and security policy enforcement. Measure latency, jitter, and packet loss versus MPLS baseline. Refine policies based on findings.

5

Branch Rollout

Ship pre-staged appliances to remaining branches. On-site or remote technicians connect WAN links and power on. Zero-touch provisioning pulls configuration from FortiManager automatically. Each branch goes live in under 60 minutes. Rollout 5-10 branches per week at scale.

6

MPLS Decommission & Optimise

Once all branches are stable on SD-WAN, begin MPLS circuit disconnection in coordination with provider contract terms. Optimise SD-WAN policies based on 30-60 days of production traffic analytics. Hand over to your NOC with runbooks, monitoring dashboards, and escalation procedures.

FortiGate SD-WAN — Key Capabilities

Application-Aware Routing

First-packet identification of 5,000+ applications. SLA-based steering measures latency, jitter, and packet loss per link in real-time. Traffic is routed to the best-performing path for each application class.

Integrated NGFW Security

Firewall, IPS, application control, web filtering, antivirus, and SSL deep inspection — all on the same appliance. No separate security stack at the branch. Powered by FortiGuard threat intelligence with real-time updates.

Cloud On-Ramp

Direct internet breakout for SaaS applications at the branch. Built-in connectors for Azure, AWS, and GCP for optimal cloud path selection. FortiSASE integration for remote users accessing the same overlay.

Auto-VPN & Mesh

ADVPN builds dynamic spoke-to-spoke tunnels on demand — no need for full-mesh configuration. Spoke branches communicate directly without routing through the hub, reducing latency for inter-branch traffic.

Centralised Orchestration

FortiManager provides single-pane management for hundreds of branches. Template-based provisioning, firmware management, policy push, and compliance auditing. FortiAnalyzer adds traffic analytics, SLA reporting, and historical trending.

WAN Optimisation

Built-in protocol optimisation, byte caching, and TCP optimisation reduce bandwidth consumption by 40-60% for repetitive traffic patterns. Forward error correction (FEC) recovers packets without retransmission on lossy links.

ROI That Justifies Itself

Typical cost comparison for a 20-branch enterprise WAN.

MPLS-Only WAN (Annual)

  • 20x MPLS circuits (10 Mbps each) High
  • Branch routers + maintenance Medium
  • Separate branch firewalls Medium
  • No SaaS optimisation Latency Cost
  • Total effective cost Baseline

SD-WAN (Annual)

  • 20x dual broadband (100 Mbps each) 60-70% less
  • FortiGate SD-WAN + licensing Included
  • Integrated NGFW (no separate FW) Included
  • Direct SaaS breakout Productivity Gain
  • Total effective cost 40-70% savings

Exact savings depend on current MPLS contract rates and regional broadband pricing. We provide a detailed TCO analysis during assessment.

Common Migration Scenarios

Multi-Branch Retail & BFSI

50-500 branches with standardised configurations. Zero-touch provisioning and template-based deployment make rollout efficient. Integrated security replaces separate branch firewalls. LTE/5G backup ensures uptime for PoS and core banking.

Manufacturing & Warehouses

Remote factories and distribution centres with limited ISP options. SD-WAN aggregates multiple low-cost links (broadband + LTE) to match MPLS-level reliability. OT segmentation keeps SCADA traffic isolated from IT traffic on the same appliance.

SaaS-Heavy Enterprises

Organisations where 80%+ traffic is SaaS-bound (M365, Salesforce, Workday, SAP). Direct internet breakout at the branch eliminates data centre backhaul latency. Application steering ensures consistent user experience across all locations.

Hybrid Cloud Connectivity

Branches needing direct connectivity to Azure, AWS, or GCP workloads. FortiGate SD-WAN Cloud On-Ramp provides optimised paths to cloud regions. Virtual FortiGate in the cloud extends the SD-WAN overlay into IaaS environments seamlessly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Most organisations achieve 40-70% WAN cost reduction. MPLS circuits at committed bandwidth rates are replaced with commodity broadband, LTE/5G, or DIA links at a fraction of the cost. The SD-WAN appliance and licensing cost is typically recovered within 6-12 months. Exact savings depend on your current MPLS contract, circuit count, and bandwidth requirements — we provide a detailed ROI analysis during assessment.

Yes. Hybrid WAN is the recommended approach for most enterprises. You keep MPLS for latency-sensitive applications (voice, video, real-time trading) while offloading bulk traffic (web, SaaS, backup) to broadband or DIA. SD-WAN steers traffic intelligently based on application SLA requirements. Many customers phase out MPLS entirely over 12-18 months as they gain confidence in the overlay.

We are an authorised Fortinet partner and deploy FortiGate SD-WAN as our primary platform. FortiGate integrates SD-WAN with next-gen firewall, IPS, SSL inspection, and ZTNA in a single appliance — eliminating the need for separate security devices at each branch. We also support Cato SASE for cloud-native SD-WAN requirements.

We deploy SD-WAN appliances at each branch in parallel with existing routers. Traffic is gradually shifted using policy-based routing — starting with non-critical applications, then progressively moving business-critical traffic once SLA thresholds are validated. Each branch cutover takes 30-60 minutes of planned downtime, typically scheduled outside business hours.

SD-WAN overlays use IPsec tunnels with AES-256 encryption between all sites. FortiGate SD-WAN adds NGFW inspection (IPS, application control, web filtering, SSL inspection) at every branch — something MPLS alone never provided. During the coexistence phase, both MPLS and SD-WAN paths are available, so security posture actually improves during migration.

FortiGate SD-WAN provides direct internet breakout at the branch for SaaS applications like Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and SAP. This eliminates the hair-pinning through a central data centre that MPLS networks require. Application-aware routing continuously measures latency, jitter, and packet loss on each WAN link and steers traffic to the best-performing path in real-time.

Yes. We manage the full lifecycle — ISP selection, circuit ordering, installation coordination, and SLA negotiation. We recommend diverse ISPs per branch for redundancy (two broadband from different providers, or broadband + LTE/5G). Our procurement team has relationships with major ISPs and can often fast-track installations.

FortiGate SD-WAN supports HA (active-passive) at critical branches. For smaller branches, the MPLS link (if retained) serves as automatic failover. FortiManager provides centralised monitoring with real-time alerts for device health. We include next-business-day hardware replacement in our support contracts, and maintain spare inventory for critical sites.

Ready to Replace MPLS with SD-WAN?

Get a free WAN assessment with traffic analysis, ROI projection, and a phased migration plan tailored to your branch network.

FortiGate SD-WAN Solutions