SD-WAN is not only great for Application Aware Routing, it's also great in other aspects as well, such as:
- Creating your DMVPN with automated tunnel resiliency. Every circuit you have will automatically create a tunnel to every site, no config necessary. You can prefer tunnels easily, based on circuit alone or policy. So much more
- Default Multiple circuit load-balancing which can be enhanced by features such as AAR, SLA policies, etc. Great when replacing expensive MPLS circuits. When moving over to SD-WAN, I was able to replace my expensive MPLS for 1 DIA and 2 Business Broadband circuits for the same cost.
- Packet Duplication which allows any selected traffic, preferably Voice, to be duplicated out circuits in case of an ISP outage.
- Router Provisioning Automation which made my job easier when deploying new sites. I just created the router config in vManage, sent the router out to the sites with a small config script which allows the router to find my vManage, and done. You can literally deploy your 50 sites in one night.
These are just SOME of the benefits of SD-WAN. Sure, you can accomplish these features on some platforms without the need for SD-WAN, but the setup is a million times easier and faster.