What is the significance of 'service chaining' in SD-WAN?

• A. Service chaining is unrelated to SD-WAN services
• B. Service chaining creates loops
• C. Service chaining is only for authentication
• D. Service chaining links multiple services in a defined order to form a cohesive end-to-end service path

Answer: (D)

Service chaining in SD-WAN means connecting multiple services in a defined order to form a cohesive end-to-end service path. This approach lets the SD-WAN orchestrator steer traffic through a curated sequence of services (such as firewalling, IDS/IPS, secure web gateway, VPN, and WAN optimization) and apply security, compliance, and performance policies consistently across branches and cloud hops. The order matters because each service processes the traffic and passes it to the next, shaping the final treatment, latency, and policy outcomes. With service chaining, you can update the chain, swap vendors, or extend to cloud-delivered services without reconfiguring each site, delivering a centralized, predictable policy model. It’s not about loops, it isn’t limited to authentication, and it isn’t unrelated to SD-WAN services—the concept is about stitching multiple services into a single, ordered path across the network.