SD-WAN continues its emergence as a transformative technology helping enterprises in multiple business sectors achieve operational efficiencies from their networking infrastructure. VMware SD-WAN™ by VeloCloud® ranked as the top SD-WAN solution in a recent report from Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, a highly-regarded advisory and consulting organization serving clients all over the world.
Quadrant Knowledge Solutions are known as experts in analyzing emerging technologies transforming the modern business landscape. The company’s report covering the worldwide SD-WAN market predicted exponential growth over the next five years. It’s slated to grow from $1.36 billion in 2018 to over $17.92 billion by 2024–an annual CAGR of 53.6 percent.
Here is a summary of their findings related to VMware and VeloCloud:
“VMware has acquired significant market by integrating VeloCloud with its NSX platform to provide a comprehensive virtualized networking solution to their enterprise customers. Amongst the large networking vendors, VMware has gained a significant reputation for delivering extensive SD-WAN capabilities to support the requirements of large enterprise and service providers.”
Let’s dive deeper into their analysis of the global SD-WAN market, highlighting the technology differentiators companies need to look for when evaluating an SD-WAN solution.
Solutions with Comprehensive SD-WAN Technology Capabilities
The top providers in the SD-WAN space all provide solutions with a full range of functionality. This includes a seamless zero-touch deployment of the new network infrastructure, letting organizations take advantage of the simplified management provided by the SD-WAN approach.
Additionally, improved application performance is achieved by the optimization of network traffic. This is the case no matter the underlying complexity of the company’s legacy network. The best SD-WAN solutions offer the flexibility required for a successful integration even with large hybrid architectures.
A Multilayered Approach to Information Security
News about hacking and other nefarious cybercriminal activity appears on a daily basis. This is a major reason why a multilayered approach to network security is an essential differentiator between SD-WAN solutions. Enterprises increasingly relying on cloud-based applications need to ensure security across their entire infrastructure.
The leading SD-WAN vendors offer significant security capabilities; for example, secure WAN segments in virtual networks or private clouds, isolating vital traffic. State of the art firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention, in addition to URL filtering—all combine to ensure security across the entire network.
Network Performance Monitoring Powered by Analytics
Best-of-breed SD-WAN solutions now include analytics-based network and performance monitoring. This functionality either uses an embedded analytical capability or easily integrates with a third-party data analytics solution. This functionality remains a key part of ensuring simplified network management and application performance optimization–two major reasons why companies choose SD-WAN.
Supporting Multi-Cloud Architectures
Depending on business requirements, enterprises sometimes turn to a multi-cloud approach for their networking and SaaS application needs. This includes public clouds like AWS or Azure, secure private clouds, or a hybrid architecture. Any top SD-WAN solution needs to be able to support these complex multi-cloud architectures.
The leading SD-WAN vendors regularly collaborate with the best SaaS, IaaS, and cloud service providers, ensuring connectivity with their products. This enables enterprises to develop and execute their own policies for traffic steering and prioritization of traffic to cloud applications.
Future Proofing the Enterprise Network Infrastructure
With SD-WAN technology now in a stage of rapid exponential growth, expect significant innovations to continue. One such advancement involves an increased use of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to create self-adaptive and secure corporate networks able to scale in tandem with the business. This concept is called intent-based networking and it is an emerging goal of many companies currently investing in SD-WAN network solutions.
The preeminent SD-WAN vendors make it a point to consistently update and upgrade their product offerings. This includes both an automated ability to adapt, as well as the data analytics mentioned earlier. Investing in a state-of-the-art SD-WAN is an essential part of future proofing the modern corporate network.
Simplified Network Deployment and Management
Any organization planning to invest in an SD-WAN solution hopes for an easy migration with little to no disruption to their current operations. The products offered by the leading vendors in this space focus on providing simplified deployment and ease of management once implemented.
Organizations investing in an SD-WAN solution need to perform the right amount of analysis of their current network infrastructure. This data is used to feed an informed planning process, ensuring a smooth project and successful deployment. As such, top SD-WAN solution providers make it easy for companies to choose the right deployment option for their current infrastructure.
Ultimately, the SD-WAN market is currently riding a wave of explosive growth. The Quadrant Knowledge Solutions report outlines the reasons behind this rapid market expansion, as well as the top vendors helping to drive it.
With VeloCloud, now part of VMware named by Quadrant as one of the leaders in SD-WAN solutions, they remain poised to help your organization achieve the best return on its networking investment. Your company’s competition is likely considering a similar approach. Don’t get left behind.
SD-WAN continues its emergence as a transformative technology helping enterprises in multiple business sectors achieve operational efficiencies from their networking infrastructure. VMware SD-WAN™ by VeloCloud® ranked as the top SD-WAN solution in a recent report from Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, a highly-regarded advisory and consulting organization serving clients all over the world.
