Earlier this week, VMware shared that we were named as a Leader in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for WAN Edge Infrastructure for the fourth year in a row. I am once again happy to announce that VMware has been recognized in the 2021 Gartner Critical Capabilities™ for WAN Edge Infrastructure report. Click here to download the report.
VMware received the highest score among 18 vendors for the Cloud-First WAN use case, reflecting our belief that moving to the cloud is and will be critically important for enterprises to succeed at the evolving WAN edge.
The use cases in the 2021 Gartner Critical Capabilities for WAN Edge Infrastructure report are:
Security-sensitive WAN (VMware scored 4.24/5)
Cloud-first WAN (4.25/5)
Remote work (4.18/5)
Small branch WAN (4.36/5)
Large global WAN (4.35/5)
Strong security for the WAN edge
When enterprise employees can work from anywhere, enterprise networks need solid security and ultra-low latency no matter where their workers or apps are physically located. There is a demonstrated need to move security stacks and applications to the cloud, creating fast “onramps” that bring users and software closer together.
As a result of our large investment in security features, VMware is among the Leaders in the Security-sensitive WAN category this year. This signifies our commitment to the “secure” component of secure access service edge (SASE).
VMware SD-WAN™ is a component of VMware SASE™, which converges cloud networking and security, delivered as a cloud-hosted service. It enables reliable, more secure, and efficient access for users located anywhere to applications on any cloud, while protecting users and infrastructure against internal and external threats.
Looking to the future of work and the future of the WAN edge
In the Critical Capabilities report, Gartner offers a few assumptions and predictions for the WAN edge market:
“By 2025, 50% of SD-WAN purchases will be part of a single vendor SASE offering.”
VMware SASE is a comprehensive solution that offers our entire SASE stack in one easy to use, future-ready platform deployed in VMware SASE points of presence (PoPs). More than 150 SASE PoPs are delivered by VMware and our partners worldwide, reaching 85% of the world’s major cities with a sub-10ms response.
“By 2025, 40% of enterprises with SD-WAN deployments will use artificial intelligence (AI) functions to automate Day 2 operations.”
VMware Edge Network Intelligence is an AIOps solution that gives IT true visibility into the IoT and end user devices on their network, along with analytics. For work-from-anywhere employees, Edge Network Intelligence can also help them — and their IT departments — to quickly determine the root causes of network problems.
“By 2024, 35% of enterprises will manage their branch and remote worker network access via the same management console.”
VMware SASE is managed through a single interface via the VMware Orchestrator, providing single-pane-of-glass access to a single-stack solution. It’s one-stop-shopping for enterprise security and network needs at the WAN Edge.
Gartner, Critical Capabilities for WAN Edge Infrastructure, Jonathan Forest, Andrew Lerner, Naresh Singh, Evan Zeng, 20 September 2021
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