MARKET REPORT SD-WAN
“We will see a sharp decline of MPLS adoption, likewise probably a similar decline in its price as its
perceived value defaults.” Anthony Senter, CEO of SDWAN Solutions
SD-WAN – time to jump on it?
There has been no escaping the buzz which has surrounded the SD-WAN market over the last few years. What
started off as a confusing non-standardised technology the SD-WAN market has matured into a battleground
ripe for resellers. Comms Business went to investigate the opportunities for the market in 2020 and beyond.
As we came into 2020 it
looked as though it would
be a breakout year for
SD-WAN technology.
We thought it would nally
take hold in the market and
have a signicant impact on
the installed MPSL base. Six
months into the year and clearly
the market has been thrown
a curveball, so what does the
landscape actually look like
now?
Rob Clark, Director of
Technologies and Solutions
Development at the Nuvias
Group commented “SDWAN
is a growth market
and a sizeable opportunity
for the Channel, and it will
continue to be so in the longer
term. CV-19 is slowing things
down but the main driver and
underlying reason for SDWAN
adoption continues to
be Digital Transformation and
its requirement for compliance
and control. For a business to
become a Digital Enterprise,
SD-WAN is the only available
option.
Businesses are reviewing
their cost-commitments and
looking for conserve capital in
the current volatile situation.
Aside from agile networks,
SD-WAN can oer a more
exible type of IT investment
that does not require a large
capital investment upfront, yet
it can be quickly deployed and
managed as a service. SD-WAN
can deliver a reduction in Opex
(50%+) and an increase in asset
utilisation (40%+). e progress
in Cloud adoption is also at
the root of increased SD-WAN
deployments.
SD-WAN is an important
element as part of SASE
(Gartner), a framework that sees
convergence and integration
of networking and security
elements in a policy-based
environment. Integration and
consolidation are key words
in terms of the evolution we’re
likely to see in the SD-WAN
space.”
Mark Curtis-Wood at Vaioni
Wholesale says “I think it’s
stronger than ever, even though
we’re seeing warnings that
SD-WAN growth will shrink
over 2020 due to COVID
which is understandable,
considering businesses have been
focussing on continuity, not
performance. e silver lining
is, as things start getting back
to normal, there’s going to be a
lot of organisations looking to
optimise their infrastructure’s
eciency and they will turn to
SD-WAN.
Businesses are considering
SD-WAN because it’s a powerful
digital transformation tool.
It can enhance many aspects
of an organisation’s network
performance with little
upheaval; security, eciency,
communication and cost can
all improve with the right SDWAN
implementation.
Also, we’re now heavily relying
on low latency communications,
with cloud services, VoIP and
video conferencing becoming
critical in remote working.
Security features like End-to-
End encryption and robust
remote access applications
are also very attractive in the
current climate, as businesses are
needing to extend the edge of
their networks to remote teams.”
Anthony Senter, CEO of
SDWAN Solutions said “e
COVID crisis has brought
about an ‘SD-WAN dichotomy’
– on the one hand many
CTOs, directors and senior IT
management recognise the need
for a robust, secure and exible
network, with the ability for a
huge number of sta to work
remotely and to bring remote
sites onto their networks as and
when required, but fast once
those sites have been identied
(precisely what SD-WAN
delivers). SD-WAN has quickly
adapted to global changes in
response to the huge spike in
home working – we ourselves
have two homeworker solutions
© Daria Sol-stock.adobe.com
24 | Comms Business Magazine | July 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/Sol-stock.adobe.com
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk