SD-WAN to Clip WAN Edge Growth, Gartner Predicts

The way networks are architected is changing and this change is driving innovation in the WAN edge market, according to the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant WAN Edge Infrastructure report. The way networks are architected is changing and this change is driving innovation in the WAN edge market, according to the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant WAN Edge Infrastructure report. In addition to ranking the leading WAN vendors, the report delved into an analysis of market trends offering predictions as to how the changing winds of network demands will shape the market going forward. One of the research firms’ biggest predictions might come as a surprise: the WAN edge market’s annual growth rate will fall in end-user spending from 2018 to 2023, as enterprises shift to lower-cost, single appliance SD-WAN deployments. While great for customers, who will likely pay less for hardware, Gartner expects this to be offset somewhat by increasing bandwidth demands on WAN networks. The overall result will be a modest decline in market growth and an overall lower price per bit. However, for the time being, Gartner seems to think that these appliances will for the most part remain proprietary. Gartner predicts that through 2021, about 80% of SD-WAN solutions will be delivered on dedicated hardware rather than universal consumer premise equipment (uCPE). With this shift to single appliance deployments, Gartner reports enterprises are increasingly making networking and security decisions at the same time and with the same vendor. “This is largely driven by the move to distribute internet access and change the security perimeter,” the Gartner report states. Gartner predicts customers will give preference to vendors that combine security and networking functions as they attempt to limit branch sprawl. Likewise, Gartner sees WAN vendors building a common orchestration layer that ties together LAN, WLAN, WAN, as well as security into what the market is calling SD-branch. According to Gartner, SD-branch allows for simpler management of policy across each of the networks. The research firm predicts this capability will likely become a differentiating factor for many vendors. “Although Gartner still sees customers procuring LAN/WLAN separate from WAN, there is increasing evidence that this may change for certain customer environments,” the report reads. According to Gartner, most WAN deployments in North America remain DIY. However, outside of North America, managed solutions are the preferred choice, especially among mid-sized businesses. Gartner expects to see the WAN market trend toward more managed services. With this trend, the research firm expects to see a divergence in WAN philosophies around whether to select a thick deployment that places most of the functions in the branch or a thin deployment that shifts many functions not essential to the branch location to the cloud. Gartner expects that large enterprises, many of which have favored DIY solutions, will trend toward a thick branch approach, while small-to-mid-size enterprises will favor a thin deployment. According to Gartner, fewer than 10% of enterprises this year have internet WAN connectivity and 20% have adopted SD-WAN. However, in the next four or five years, Gartner expects the number of enterprises deploying internet-based WAN to grow to 30% and SD-WAN to reach 60% of enterprises. Driving adoption is a fundamental change in the market. Gartner reports that the WAN market is increasingly transitioning from individual routing, security, and WAN optimization appliances to consolidated SD-WAN and uCPE. “SD-WAN is replacing routing and adding application-aware path selection among multiple links, centralized orchestration, and native security, as well as other functions,” the report notes. Gartner identified seven factors likely to drive adoption within the WAN edge market moving forward. These included, hardware refresh cycles, renewal of managed service contracts, changing traffic patterns driven by cloud adoption, changing security perimeters, branch expansions, cost savings enabled by automation, appliance and feature consolidation. “Moving forward Gartner views SD-WAN and NFV as key technologies to help enterprises transform their networks from fragile to agile,” the report reads.