Digitalization is the next frontier for manufacturing firms, promising opportunities for agility, optimization, and increased competitiveness. Many businesses are beginning to realize that evolving their network infrastructure is not simply a choice, but a necessity for survival. A new report by global analyst firm Frost & Sullivan provides a glimpse into how successful manufacturing firms are modernizing their operations with SD-WAN and SASE. The report, How Successful Manufacturing Firms Have Modernized Operations Using SD-WAN and SASE: Best Practices Learned from Technology Decision-Makers, is available now from the VMware website.
Challenges and opportunities for transformation in modern manufacturing
Successful manufacturers must embrace digitalization for several key reasons. It allows increased agility, enabling companies to quickly adapt to changing customer preferences and market demands. Optimization can reduce product errors, minimize time to market, and even conserve energy. Digitalization can also eliminate unplanned downtime, enhance transparency, and eliminate unconnected assets.
Additionally, traceability is crucial in the manufacturing sector. End-to-end visibility and accountability in sourcing components across the value chain are necessary to support interconnectivity and derive valuable metrics. Finally, the manufacturing industry faces relentless competition, prompting companies to prioritize operational efficiency and cost reduction.
Callout quote “The majority of manufacturing organizations—76%—have prioritized digitalization as a strategic imperative. Nearly a quarter, 22%, remain hesitant to embark on a digitalization journey. As a result, these firms will fall behind their competitors.”
These challenges and opportunities have prompted an extensive transformation within the manufacturing industry. In this report, Frost & Sullivan explores how SD-WAN and SASE technologies can aid manufacturers in achieving their digitalization goals. By highlighting five key benefits, this report demonstrates the potential of these solutions to revolutionize the industry.
SD-WAN is critical to the manufacturing sector
Manufacturing operations require reliable and secure bandwidth for large data processing, transport, and storage. SD-WAN can provide intelligent routing, data transport security, automated connectivity, and AI-powered IT operations support.
It is also the first step towards a SASE solution that can be managed from a single platform with integrated security functionalities. Understanding of the value of SD-WAN is increasing, but adoption in manufacturing lags behind other industries because of internal challenges and lack of awareness.
Five benefits for manufacturers who deploy SD-WAN and SASE
Based on their extensive research into companies in the manufacturing sector, Frost & Sullivan dive into five major benefits that manufacturers see when they implement SD-WAN and SASE technologies:
Improve resiliency and security with more reliable application performance, network diversity and better protection for edge applications.
Greater control over data with private 5G for flexibility and faster, lower latency data processing at edge sites. SD-WAN can take advantage of 5G network slicing to create customized and isolated network segments, dynamically adapting to changing network conditions and application requirements.
Better performance through AIOps to enable advanced operations such as automated asset monitoring and enabling predictive maintenance. SD-WAN and SASE use AIOps for simpler, automated management of networks and hardware from PCs to IoT devices.
Gain agility and scalability through SD-WAN’s single-pane-of-glass management for the full manufacturing stack, including IoT and OT (operational technology) devices.
Reduce costs through SD-WAN’s superior reliability and the ability to implement network and supplier diversity.
For a more detailed account of digital transformation in the manufacturing sector, we invite you to download the full report. It provides an in-depth look at how SD-WAN and SASE are shaping the future of manufacturing, and how your business can be a part of it.
