MARKET REPORT SD-WAN
“Combined, SD-WAN and MPLS offer far more than one or the other ever could. And that’s why there is a case for
Hybrid solutions that give the customer the best of both technologies.” Mark Curtis-Wood at Vaioni Wholesale
Mark Curtis-Wood at Vaioni Wholesale
enabling secure, centralised
management, there are no
guarantees for QoS once data
packets enter the open internet.
Combined, SD-WAN and
MPLS o er far more than
one or the other ever could.
And that’s why there is a case
for Hybrid solutions that give
the customer the best of both
technologies.”
Senter believes MPLS has
had its day. He said, “All
technology has a lifespan and
it seems MPLS has entered the
winter of its particular lifespan;
this is largely due to SD-WAN.
We will see a sharp decline
of MPLS adoption, likewise
probably a similar decline in
its price as its perceived value
defaults. ere is however, no
getting away from the fact that
MPLS has long been costly
and clunky – SD-WAN o ers
vastly improved technology, is
faster, smarter and more cost
e ective, and, as innovation
leaders in the SD-WAN arena
seek to reduce the price of
SD-WAN, it will follow that
more and more companies will
choose SD-WAN over MPLS.
e only blocker to that is
that those companies who
perhaps only relatively recently
implemented MPLS may
be su ering from ‘adoption
fatigue’ and have their eye
rmly on post-COVID crisis
initiatives rather than reteching
projects. Many of
our customers with hybrid
MPLS and Internet SDWAN
solutions are amazed
to see their tra c being sent
mostly down the Internet
links rather than MPLS due to
better latency, even in central
London. e dependence on a
single provider is also removed
(reference to the recent BT
outage that also took down
Vodafone).”
ED SAYS…
If you are still on the fence when it comes to
SD-WAN then take my advice. In the words of
the Sugarhill Gang… “Jump on it.”
CBM: SD-WAN – is it cheaper?
Neil Wilson, Head of Products and Marketing – Virtual1
If you are a UK centric business and you have a few sites then
SD-WAN does not signal the death of MPLS. SD-WAN can be quite
pricey if you want all the security features and all of the bells and
whistles that can deliver, unfortunately that doesn’t necessarily
come cheap.
The rhetoric around SD-WAN when it came into the UK market
was ‘you are going to save loads of money’ and that is not the case.
If you are looking for SD-WAN to save you money, unless you have
a big global network where you can suddenly procure in-country
internet connectivity from the cheapest provider, then you need
to look elsewhere. It has the potential to transform the way your
business operates and to deliver big performance enhancements
but it comes at a price.
I was on a panel not too long ago with a load of carriers.
Interestingly China Telecom are not selling SD-WAN in China
because MPLS has 100% mark-up there. They have launched SDWAN
for the international market and they don’t want it anywhere
near their domestic market because of the impact to their
revenues. They were not alone in that stance either.”
“As the awareness grows of what
SD-WAN is and the bene ts
it should bring, as more
and more articles are written,
as forums and comparison
sites increase it will become
increasingly and glaringly
apparent who provides true SDWAN
and who frankly, does
not. is does not bode well for
client/customer retention and
reseller and vendor reputations
– relationships and trust will
su er. Furthermore, there will
be an increased expectation
from customers who wish to
cherry pick their solutions, so
a modular approach will need
to be o ered. After all, up to
now SD-WAN as a whole,
has largely been o ered from
corporate giants to corporate
giants, but as medium and
even small enterprises seek
to adopt SD-WAN they will
have di erent needs, wants
and agendas. O ering a single
solution will start to appeal only
to customers with a speci c set
of requirements.
We are seeing a huge spike
in requests for existing SDWAN
deployment health check
services or solution remedy
as partners take on SD-WAN
projects without being suitably
quali ed or experienced. A
vendor online course does not
fully equip partners with the
knowledge and experience
needed for a successful SDWAN
design or installation.
Vendors promoting solutions
that load balance only (Juniper)
or solutions that take up to 5
minutes to detect and failover
after a link failover (Cisco
Meraki) are misleading their
customer base and will soon
have to answer some very
awkward questions when it
comes to solution performance
and customer expectation – no
one wants to feel cheated.”
Is MPLS dead in the water?
e SD-WAN market has
previously been guilty of perhaps
predicting an early demise of the
currently dominant technology
MPLS. Although the advantages
of SD-WAN over MPLS are
clear, does that mean it is a one
horse race?
Mark Curtis Wood
commented “It’s just one piece
of the jigsaw. Many may have
thought that SD-WAN was
going to remove the need for
MPLS almost entirely. Still,
the performance guarantees it
provides are critical, especially
for those video and voice
services that we’re all now
relying on.
While SD-WAN is excellent
at optimising performance
over public connections, and
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