In latency improvement scenarios, what technique reduces backhaul delay?

• A. Local breakout for certain cloud services enables direct access from the branch, reducing backhaul delay.
• B. Route all traffic through the central site to normalize latency.
• C. Local breakout applies only to management traffic and nothing else.
• D. Rely on a single tunnel irrespective of latency requirements.

Answer: (A)

Local breakout is used to cut backhaul delay by sending only specific traffic directly from the branch to the internet or cloud services, instead of routing it all the way back to a central site. When users access cloud apps or SaaS from a branch, the path that traffic would take to reach those services if it were sent to the central hub adds extra hops and potential congestion. Breaking out locally means that traffic for those destinations exits the branch over its local internet connection and reaches the cloud or service with a shorter, faster route. This directly lowers the delay seen by the user and frees the central link for other traffic that truly needs it.

This approach is typically governed by routing or security policies, so only selected destinations (like certain cloud apps) are sent locally, while other traffic may still be sent to the central site for security, compliance, or optimization reasons. Even with local breakout, security services such as firewalls, threat protection, and encryption can be applied at the branch edge to maintain protection.

Other options would either force all traffic through the central site, which increases backhaul latency; treat local breakout as limited only to management traffic (it’s actually used for various cloud and internet destinations); or rely on a single tunnel without regard to latency, which can impair performance in latency-sensitive scenarios. Local breakout directly addresses the goal of reducing backhaul delay.