VMware is positioned as an SD-WAN market leader in the report. Cloud-delivered VMware SD-WAN™ optimizes application performance over any WAN link, simplifies WAN management, and provides security from branches to data centers and cloud locations.
“SD-WAN remains one of the fastest-growing segments of the network infrastructure market due to this technology’s ability to improve user and application experiences, provide integrated connectivity and security, enable seamless connectivity to the cloud and hosted applications, and provide an opportunity for organizations to save money.”
IDC research indicates that cloud, SaaS, and edge infrastructure, including SD-WAN, will grow faster than traditional infrastructure. They predict an SD-WAN CAGR of 18.9% through 2025, compared to 18.5% in 2020.
“The need for intelligent, adaptable, and always-on (pervasive) connectivity has become a mandatory requirement for businesses to operate and for people, processes, and things to connect with one another,” according to the IDC report. VMware is solving for this need through a comprehensive, industry-leading, software-defined portfolio that addresses the ongoing digital needs of enterprises and service providers alike.
More about VMware SD-WAN
SD-WAN is a vital networking technology for the newly distributed workforce and a foundational component of secure access service edge (SASE). VMware SD-WAN and VMware SASE™ are accelerating fundamental change at the network edge, tying together multiple clouds, communications service providers, devices, and enterprises with a cohesive infrastructure that features end-to-end intelligence, edge compute, application delivery, and cloud-delivered security based on a zero-trust model.
The IDC report notes several areas where VMware’s market-leading strength is in evidence:
Communications service provider partnerships: VMware solutions including SASE and VMware Edge Compute Stack help communications service providers create a secure, resilient edge with cloud and compute that they can use to build new revenue-generating services. The IDC report notes that “VMware has successfully leveraged communications service providers as an effective go-to-market channel, and VMware’s broader efforts to build management offers for communications SPs beyond SD-WAN, including security and integrated core and RAN services, will make VMware’s SD-WAN even more appealing for communications SPs in the future.”
Network visibility and analytics: VMware Edge Network Intelligence™ stretches end-to-end across clouds, networks, and endpoint devices to provide a true picture of overall network health. The solution provides visibility into end user and IoT device experience at any location when they access applications in the cloud or in the data center. For the remote workforce, VMware Edge Network Intelligence goes beyond traditional tools to provide insight into home-based workers’ connections, helping enterprise IT with proactive insight and suggestions for how to fix employees’ connection problems.
Cloud-based security: As a foundational SASE component, VMware SD-WAN underpins services including VMware Secure Access™ and VMware Cloud Web Security™. Secure Access enables consistent, optimal and secure remote application access in a zero-trust framework. The Cloud Web Security solution includes URL filtering, content filtering, anti-virus, cloud access security broker (CASB), data loss prevention (DLP) and SSL decryption features that protect users and infrastructure accessing SaaS and Internet applications from a changing landscape of internal and external threats.
Integration strength: VMware SD-WAN naturally integrates well with other VMware management solutions, making it a “strong choice” for existing VMware customers. On its own and as part of VMware SASE, VMware SD-WAN is built on a broad ecosystem and open, extensible architecture. This allows the smooth addition of a wide array of third-party solutions, from analytics to security.
