Connecting multiple office locations, branch sites, or remote workers to a central network involves a choice that sits at the centre of most enterprise IT budgets: MPLS or SD-WAN. Both solve the same core problem, getting traffic from one site to another reliably and securely, but they do it in fundamentally different ways, at very different costs, with different trade-offs depending on your business requirements.
MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) has been the standard for enterprise wide-area networking for two decades. SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) is the newer approach that is reshaping how businesses think about branch connectivity, particularly as fibre and LTE coverage expands and cloud applications become the primary workload.
As a managed networking and cybersecurity partner, Sentire Kenya designs and deploys both architectures for businesses across our client base. This article explains how each technology works, where each performs best, and what the connectivity landscape in Kenya means for the decision.
What Is MPLS?
MPLS is a private carrier network. Your ISP, Safaricom, Airtel Business, Liquid Telecom, or another provider builds a dedicated connection between your sites that operates entirely within their managed infrastructure. Traffic is routed using labels rather than IP lookups at every hop, which makes routing fast, deterministic, and predictable.
Because the traffic never touches the public internet, MPLS offers guaranteed bandwidth, low jitter, and contractual uptime commitments. Quality of Service (QoS) is built in voice and video calls get priority over file transfers at the network level, not just at your router. This makes MPLS the natural choice for latency-sensitive applications and regulated industries where performance consistency is non-negotiable.
The trade-off is cost and rigidity. MPLS is leased infrastructure. You pay for every megabit across every site, provisioning takes weeks to months, and scaling up requires renegotiating contracts with your carrier.
What Is SD-WAN?
SD-WAN is a software layer that runs on top of any internet connection, fibre, LTE, VSAT, or a combination of all three. Instead of leasing dedicated carrier infrastructure, you use commodity broadband links and let the SD-WAN software manage how traffic moves across them.
The software monitors the health of each link in real time and routes traffic intelligently. Voice calls go over the most stable path. Bulk file transfers use whatever bandwidth is available. If one link degrades or fails, traffic shifts to another automatically faster than a human could intervene and, in most cases, faster than the user notices.
SD-WAN typically includes centralised policy management, application-aware routing, built-in encryption, and visibility across all sites from a single console. Deployment is fast: a branch site can go live in hours rather than weeks.
Side-by-Side: MPLS vs SD-WAN
| Factor | MPLS | SD-WAN |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | High: leased carrier infrastructure per site | Low to medium: runs over commodity broadband |
| Deployment time | Weeks to months per site | Hours to days per site |
| Reliability | Guaranteed SLA from carrier; single path | Dual/multi-link failover; resilience built in |
| Security | Private network — not exposed to the public internet | Encrypted tunnels over public internet; firewall required |
| Scalability | Slow: contract changes required to scale | Fast: add a site or upgrade a link in hours |
| QoS | Guaranteed at the network level via carrier | Application-aware; enforced by SD-WAN software |
| Cloud suitability | Limited: cloud traffic must hairpin through HQ | Direct internet breakout at branch; cloud-native |
| Management | Carrier-managed; limited visibility at your end | Centralised dashboard; full visibility per site |
| Best for | Large enterprises; latency-critical legacy apps; regulated sectors | Multi-branch SMEs; cloud-heavy workloads; cost-sensitive deployments |
MPLS: Where It Still Wins
Predictable, guaranteed performance. MPLS delivers a fixed, contracted bandwidth between sites with latency and jitter guarantees written into the SLA. For applications that cannot tolerate variable performance like real-time trading systems, certain ERP platforms, voice infrastructure running on legacy telephony, MPLS removes the uncertainty that internet-based connectivity introduces. The carrier owns the path end to end and is responsible for its performance.
Traffic never crosses the public internet. For regulated industries like banking, government, healthcare, the fact that MPLS traffic stays on a private carrier network is a meaningful security and compliance argument. There is no exposure to the broader threat landscape that comes with internet-based connectivity, even encrypted.
Simplified operations for large enterprises. When your carrier manages the network, your internal team has less to own and maintain. For large organisations with complex, high-volume site-to-site traffic and strong carrier SLAs, the managed nature of MPLS is a genuine advantage, even at a premium cost.
The honest limitation of MPLS in 2026 is that it was designed for a world where applications lived in your data centre. Most workloads now live in Microsoft 365, Azure, AWS, or SaaS platforms. Cloud traffic from a branch office still has to travel to HQ over the MPLS circuit, then out to the internet — a hairpin that adds latency and wastes bandwidth on a link you are already paying a premium for.
SD-WAN: Where It Changes the Economics
Significantly lower cost per site. Running SD-WAN over dual fibre or fibre plus LTE costs a fraction of equivalent MPLS bandwidth. For a business with five or more branch offices, the cost difference typically funds the SD-WAN hardware, software licencing, and managed service overhead and still saves money. The economics become clearer the more sites you have.
Built-in resilience through link diversity. An SD-WAN deployment with two ISP connections, one fibre, one LTE; handles link failure automatically. Traffic fails over in seconds. MPLS sites with a single carrier path are more exposed: if the MPLS circuit goes down, the site goes dark unless a separate backup link is in place (which costs more and still needs to be managed).
Direct cloud access from every branch. SD-WAN lets each branch connect directly to Microsoft 365, Teams, and cloud applications without routing through HQ. Latency drops for cloud workloads, and you stop paying for traffic to traverse your MPLS circuit twice. For businesses that have moved most workloads to Microsoft 365 or Azure, this alone often justifies the switch.
Faster to deploy, easier to scale. A new branch site that would take six to eight weeks to provision on MPLS can be online with SD-WAN in a day. For businesses that open branches frequently, or that need to adapt quickly to changing requirements, this operational agility is a significant advantage.
The Connectivity Landscape in Kenya
MPLS has historically been the preserve of large enterprises in Kenya like banks, telcos, government institutions, and international NGOs with the budget to absorb carrier-grade pricing. Provisioning through carriers such as Safaricom Business, Airtel Business, and Liquid Telecom is reliable, but costs remain high relative to the bandwidth delivered, particularly for organisations with more than three or four sites.
MPLS and dedicated leased line pricing in Kenya is not publicly listed by any carrier, it is enterprise-quote only, negotiated directly with Safaricom Business, Airtel Business, or Liquid Telecom based on bandwidth, site count, contract length, and location. If you are currently on an MPLS circuit, the monthly cost per site is a significant line item compared to standard business internet connectivity.
SD-WAN runs over standard business internet connections like fibre broadband or LTE, which are widely available from multiple carriers and significantly less expensive than dedicated MPLS circuits for equivalent bandwidth. A dual-link SD-WAN deployment for a typical branch uses a fibre primary connection and an LTE backup SIM for failover resilience. Airtel Business, Safaricom Business, and Liquid Telecom all offer business internet tiers suited to this, giving SD-WAN deployments genuine ISP diversity if required.
Note on fibre coverage: Business fibre availability has expanded significantly in Nairobi and major urban centres, but coverage in secondary towns and rural locations varies by carrier. Any SD-WAN deployment plan should start with a fibre availability check at each branch site before committing to the architecture.
The expansion of fibre broadband coverage across Nairobi and into secondary towns, alongside improving LTE availability, has changed the SD-WAN equation substantially. A business that could not have run reliable SD-WAN on the broadband infrastructure of five years ago can now deploy dual-link SD-WAN with genuine redundancy at a fraction of the MPLS cost.
For multi-branch businesses e.g. retail chains, microfinance institutions, SACCO networks, schools, healthcare groups, SD-WAN offers a practical path to connecting sites that were previously either on expensive MPLS circuits or running disconnected local infrastructure. The ability to use Safaricom fibre as a primary link and an LTE fallback gives branches resilience without requiring carrier-managed SLAs.
Businesses currently on MPLS are increasingly evaluating whether their cloud workload migration has made the original case for MPLS weaker. If the primary reason for MPLS was centralised data centre access and that data centre is now Microsoft 365 and Azure, the traffic patterns that justified MPLS no longer exist in the same way.
Sophos SD-WAN and RED Devices: Security-First Branch Connectivity
One of the most practical tools for connecting branch offices to a central network securely is the Sophos RED (Remote Ethernet Device). RED is a hardware appliance placed at a branch location that creates an encrypted, fully managed tunnel back to a Sophos XGS firewall at HQ or a data centre. All branch traffic, including internet access, is routed through the central Sophos firewall and inspected under the same security policy that covers head office.
This approach gives small branch offices the security posture of a fully managed network without requiring a dedicated firewall or IT-trained staff at the branch. The RED device is zero-touch: it connects to the internet, calls home to the Sophos firewall, and the tunnel is established automatically. Configuration is managed centrally through Sophos Central.
Sophos RED: what it delivers for branch connectivity
Sophos RED is available in two models. The RED 20 is designed for small branches of up to around 50 users and handles typical office traffic including voice, video conferencing, and cloud applications. The RED 60 adds higher throughput, dual WAN ports, and a built-in wireless access point, making it suitable for larger branches or sites where both wired and wireless connectivity need to come from a single managed device.
For businesses already running Sophos XGS firewalls at HQ, adding Sophos RED at branch sites is the most cost-effective path to a secure, centrally managed branch network. It sits between a simple VPN and a full SD-WAN deployment in terms of complexity and cost and for most SME branch requirements, it delivers everything necessary.
See our Sophos partner page for the full range of Sophos XGS and RED devices, or explore our cybersecurity services for how we deploy and manage Sophos infrastructure across client networks.
Which Technology Should Your Business Choose?
| Business situation | Recommended approach |
|---|---|
| Large enterprise with legacy on-premise applications that require guaranteed latency | MPLS — or MPLS + SD-WAN hybrid |
| Bank, regulated institution, or government agency with strict data handling requirements | MPLS for core traffic, SD-WAN for branch internet breakout |
| Multi-branch SME like retail, microfinance, schools, healthcare using Microsoft 365 and cloud apps | SD-WAN — dual ISP per site; Sophos RED for branch security |
| Business currently on MPLS evaluating a cloud migration | Hybrid transition — SD-WAN over fibre with MPLS backup during migration |
| Small business connecting one or two branch sites to HQ securely | Sophos RED over fibre or LTE — simpler than full SD-WAN; lower cost than MPLS |
| Business with remote workers needing secure access to internal systems | Sophos ZTNA or SSL VPN through Sophos XGS — not MPLS or SD-WAN |
MPLS and SD-WAN are not always either/or
Many businesses run a hybrid model: MPLS for latency-sensitive core traffic between primary sites, SD-WAN over broadband for branch-to-cloud access and lower-priority traffic. The economics of each link determine where the boundary sits. If you are evaluating this decision, the starting point is mapping your actual traffic flows before choosing the architecture.
What to Assess Before You Decide
- Map your traffic. What is actually moving between sites? If it is mostly Microsoft 365, Teams calls, and cloud ERP, the case for MPLS is weaker than it was when those workloads ran in your data centre.
- Check fibre availability at your branch locations. The quality of SD-WAN performance is directly tied to the quality of the underlying broadband. Sites with reliable fibre are well-suited to SD-WAN; sites dependent on satellite or congested LTE need more careful assessment.
- Cost your current MPLS contract per site. If you are spending significantly on MPLS bandwidth that is mostly consumed by cloud traffic, the saving from SD-WAN will be substantial.
- Consider your security model. SD-WAN over the internet requires a robust firewall and security stack at each breakout point. If you are connecting branches with Sophos RED, the HQ firewall carries the security burden, it's simpler but it means branch internet speed is gated through the tunnel.
- Plan the migration if switching. Moving from MPLS to SD-WAN is a project, not a cutover. A phased transition of maybe running both in parallel site by site. This carries much lower risk than a clean cut.
Worth mapping before your next connectivity renewal:
Where does your traffic actually go and is your current network architecture built around where it used to go, or where it goes now? Share this with your us and compare your current WAN costs against what a modern SD-WAN deployment would look like for your site count. The numbers tend to make the decision straightforward.