We recently surveyed 350 IT professionals to learn about how their WAN requirements are evolving with the emergence of SD-WANs. Our thesis was as businesses embrace clouds and hybrid clouds, a new set of WAN requirements being to emerge. Accessing the cloud and the Internet from remote locations becomes more important. There’s also a greater focus on cost and agility.
Along the way we wanted to answer some fundamental questions including:
- Is SD-WAN replacing MPLS?
- What impact, if any, will SD-WANs have for network security?
- What features do enterprise customer want to see included in SD-WAN solutions?
- Have SD-WAN lived up to expectations?
What we found painted a picture of cautious optimism for SD-WANs. There’s no question that companies are intrigued by the technology. The market is poised for 200% growth over the next 12 months, according to our research.
At the same time, enterprises have their concerns. Education is still very much needed. SD-WAN adoption will also likely make IT more complex, increasing operational costs.Companies must now understand traffic flows both across their underlying transports and their virtual overlays. This kind of split-view can complicate troubleshooting.
It also means that there will be a need for more infrastructure to manage. SD-WAN edge nodes and additional security appliances are necessary to allow direct Internet access from branch offices. Where equipment isn’t deployed, additional provider relationships must be forged and managed. Policy and management becomes far more complex in this new era of virtual networks.
All of which is why Cato has sought to make network and security simple again. By converging five critical functions — SD-WANs, network optimization, MPLS-like networking, mobile access, and advanced security — into the cloud, Cato helps companies avoid the inherent complexity introduced by SD-WAN devices.
To read the survey results in full click here >>