CHANNEL COWBOYS channel v i s ionmag . com Volume 21 Issue 4 JULY - AUGUST 2022 The Voice of the Channel The Three Types of SD-WAN Sponsored by FINDING THE TARGET UNDERSTANDING XDR Scan to Register for
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JULY - AUGUST 2022 EMERGENT 8 Simplifying the Edge AIOps improve customer and partner experience By Jon Howes CYBER PATROL 14 Partner ASM 14 Pax8 adds Nord 14 SMB security tipping point 16 Understanding XDR Your customers’ need for extended detection response By Brady Hicks VIRTUAL REALITIES 22 Hitting the Target Narrowing the view to the three types of SD-WAN architecture By Martin Vilaboy CHANNEL MANAGEMENT 30 Vital Functions of a Partner Portal By Gary Sabin 34 Where have all the cowboys gone? Considering the future of the channel By Peter Radizeski BUYERS SIDE 42 Effective IT Asset Discovery Critical for MSPs By Steve Cochran 44 Driving Digital Transformation Success in the Midmarket Prioritize business objectives, not shiny new tech objects By Paul Kozak MOBILE & WIRELESS 46 Volt CEO Offers Partners Advice on 5G By Bruce Christian 48 A Bridge too Far? WISPs wonder if BEAD will bridge the digital divide By Bruce Christian INTERNATIONAL AGENTS 52 Channel Activity Shakes Up Channel Focused on Americas By Bruce Christian CORE COMMUNICATIONS 56 Look Who’s Talking Conversation intelligence leading to success in today’s call center By Bruce Christian 60 Profitec Streamlines Telecom Billing for Provider and Customer By Brady Hicks 62 What’s New in Bicom Systems Version 6.6 64 Discover More Capabilities with New VTech/Snom Products 6 Editor’s Letter 66 ICYMI 70 3 Questions with Bicom Systems 70 Ad index CONTENTS Volume 21 – Issue 4 4 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022 Scan to Register for
Although we all have attended one too many conference breakout sessions that didn’t quite deliver what was advertised, we are very excited about the educational content that is coming together for our upcoming ChannelVision Expo (CVx) taking place this November 2-3, in Scottsdale. Our promise is that attendees will leave with actionable knowledge and insights that help them find and close deals. Attendees of CVx’s panel discussions, for instance, can be confident they will see no slide decks with vendor histories, no feature set bullet points, no product pitches nor 10,000-foot perspectives filled with warnings of transition or die. Instead, the CVx panels of street-level sales experts were put together to breakdown recent uses cases and dive into real-world examples of the deals being done, right now, within a key set of emerging services. From identifying the buyer to mapping functionality with business outcomes, discussions will cover sales forensics such as who the buyer is, why they buy, the questions posed and pain points addressed, customer outcomes and the hot buttons that helped close a deal. CVx panel sessions are designed to facilitate free and open spaces that foster interactive and spontaneous discussions on the specific topics. Attendees will be encouraged to interact with our panelists, swap war stories, share barriers faced and efforts that have broken through. We then hope those conversations carryover to the many networking and social events also taking place at CVx. These panels will be moderated by myself as well as by Peter Radizeski, president of telecom strategy and marketing consulting agency, RAD-INFO INC. Along with the panel discussions, security training experts GoldSky Security will present a mini-bootcamp identifying the sweet spots for partners and MSPs looking to offer or dive deeper into SMB cybersecurity services. John Cox, COO and managing partner at GoldSky Security, will address questions concerning how to offer additional IT security, privacy and compliance readiness solutions; the types of products to offer; and how to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Attendees will walk away with an understanding of how they can assist SMBs in minimizing the risks of malware attacks and data theft, including case studies and time for Q&A. We’re also very excited to host our keynote speaker, Bruce Wirt of Telesystem. Bruce will be sharing his “Four Ps” to coaching and developing business and sales leaders: first know their Purpose, apply fuel to their Passion, and then operate with Perseverance and Positivity. He will explain how the four Ps serve as foundational skills to building long and successful careers and provide motivations that are in direct control of the individual. Of course, further information about the educational sessions and speakers coming to CVx can be found at cvxexpo.com. Join us early both mornings of the event for a complimentary breakfast and the chance to commiserate with peers over coffee. We look forward to seeing everyone this winter in the desert. The Anatomy of the Sale LETTER Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Bruce Christian Senior Editor bruce@bekabusinessmedia.com Brady Hicks Contributing Editor brady@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Rob Schubel Digital Manager rob@bekabusinessmedia.com Jen Vilaboy Ad Production Director jen@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Anthony Graffeo Publisher anthony@bekabusinessmedia.com (203) 304-8547 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2022 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. ChannelVision and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media 6 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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By Jon Howes Edge management is one of the biggest headaches for an MSP or service provider today. Even before online and hybrid work became the norm due to the pandemic, every customer had a large number of edge devices in play to contend with. Since the pandemic, and the resulting shift in working styles, these numbers have grown. Even as employees head back into physical offices, the sheer number of devices – and therefore edges to deal with – will continue to grow. In addition to devices and equipment, there are often multiple management platforms in use that need to be accounted for. Each platform represents another set of systems, tasks and requirements that must be used to properly maintain the edge devices and equipment a customer is using. Now multiply that times several customers, and the complexity becomes overwhelming. It can become a full-time job for a service provider or MSP to simply maintain the current platforms in place. At the end of the day, managed service providers are measured on how positive an experience they provide to customers. This is why MSPs and service providers need to approach customer EMERGENT SIMPLIFYING THE EDGES AIOps improve customer and partner experience 8 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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engagements with the goal of simpl ifying their edges. As MSP and service provider customers continue to embrace mobile and cloud technologies and the benefits they have on overall operations, there will naturally be more devices and more management processes added to the collection. In many cases, this can balloon out of control very quickly as customers see the workflow benefits firsthand – and want more. Cloud and mobile apps are easy to purchase and begin using, which means that if MSPs aren’t actively offering what a customer needs, they’re liable to look elsewhere or to do it themselves, then handing the MSP the ongoing management problem. If uncontrolled, MSPs and service providers may be left with multiple clouds, multiple vendors and multiple management tools under their purview. Management can become time-consuming and inefficient, and inefficiency can easily lead to missing potential problems until it’s too late. That is why it’s so important to offer customers a clear path to taking advantage of the cloud and building out their edges in a way that makes sense for both parties. Simplify Management One of the most visible improvements of edge simplification is the ability to streamline ongoing management and maintenance. This can be done by consolidating management of customers’ services into a single platform, one that provides a singlepane-of-glass view into all operations. Presenting customers with a unified platform from which to choose services not only makes business operations more efficient and effective, it consolidates management on the MSP or solution provider side, eliminating unnecessary complexity and added costs. Management abilities are improved, and with a single view, MSPs can recognize potential network downtime or breakdowns quicker, enabling the all-important end-user experience to be maintained. As mentioned, consolidation of edge management also has the added benefit of providing realtime information about customers’ networks, empowering MSPs and service providers to proactively manage their customers, sometimes even identifying issues before they become problems. Quality of service is improved, and the overall costs of doing business are lowered for all. More importantly, customers will come to recognize their MSPs and service providers as partners that understand their needs and that are 100 percent on top of any potential wrinkle the network could throw at them. Expand Service Offerings Simplifying the edge isn’t just about improving management and maintenance, however. Having a single platform with inter-connected service offerings offers another benefit as well – the ability to expand the services offered. As an organization improves management and maintenance, they can spend less time on mundane and redundant tasks such as onboarding new equipment or checking each potential security alert. Many of these tasks can be automated along the way, which frees up valuable time and resources to be used on designing and rolling out new products and services to customers. In this way, MSPs and service providers continue to bring customers the latest innovations – while, at the same time, their own businesses can easily scale to support these expansions. Embrace AI and Automation MSPs and service providers need to continually look for ways to expand the offerings delivered to their customers, and to look for new customers to add to their roster. As expansion occurs on both fronts, additional resources will be necesEMERGENT (Among the 66% of firms that prefer entire solutions to come from one lead vendor) How Enterprises Build Their Edges Source: STL Partners 28.9% 21.3% 16.3% 14.8% 11.5% CSP Device Vendor IT Vendor Systems Integrator NEP Application Provider 7.4% Enterprise spend on public edge computing by region worldwide 2019 Source: Analysis Mason What are the biggest hurdles channel leaders face when setting up an effective partner journey? 5000 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 North America Western Europe Developed Asia-Pacific Middle East and North Africa Latin America Central and Eastern Europe Emerging Asia-Pacific Sub-Saharan Africa 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 Spend (USD million) 10 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
sary, otherwise the experience delivered to customers will start to falter. For many providers, this means adding new employees to keep up with demand. That said, even if it were easy to retain and recruit new talent, there will be a point where costs will overtake the new revenues. It’s simply not sustainable to continue adding staff each time the client list expands. The way to solve this problem is through applying artificial intelligence (AI) to the network. AI applied to the network operations and management function – often called AIOps – can help MSPs better understand their customers’ traffic patterns and needs and make decisions accordingly. The real payoff for AI, however, is in finding, troubleshooting and correcting problems. Traditionally, customers would complain to their MSPs about service issues that are affecting their experiences, such as a dead zone, dropped video calls or lag time in network speeds. Service providers would have to send out a technician to investigate. Not only would that pull their time away from other valuable tasks, and other customers, but it would be the start of a long process of trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack that was causing the problem. With AI, the technician can quickly diagnose the problem and find the likely cause, speeding time-to-repair. Imagine eliminating the trial-anderror of working down a checklist and walking around an office to locate an issue. In addition, AI also can assist technicians in the repair process, providing step-by-step instructions, which are especially helpful if the technician has never encountered the particular problem before. Proactivity is another benefit of applying AI to a network that’s had its edges simplified and consolidated under one management and visibility platform. Instead of always reacting to issues, AI can discover potential problems before they affect the experience, empowering MSPs and service providers to correct an issue before it’s even an issue. A Dual Benefit Simplifying the edge has a dual benefit for MSPs and service providers. Not only is the quality of services provided to customers streamlined and improved, the management of them on the MSP side is made far more efficient than before. New services can be deployed to existing or new customers faster and more efficiently – and hours are shaved off the process of identifying and correcting any potential problems. Simplifying the edge helps improve the quality and efficiency of both customers’ and MSPs’ businesses, making it a win for all parties involved. o Jon Howes is responsible for business development and alliances for Juniper’s AI driven enterprise business unit in EMEA. EMERGENT Source: STL Partners Other Lack of buy-in from leadership Misaligned Strategies Enablement Homegrown technology Not having software or automation Variety of third-party tools that make up a combined tech stack Execution of Strategy Misaligned Incentives Enterprise spend on public edge computing by region worldwide 2019-2025 Source: Analysis Mason What are the biggest hurdles channel leaders face when setting up an effective partner journey? Source: Impartner; The Spur Group 5000 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 North America Western Europe Developed Asia-Pacific Middle East and North Africa Latin America Central and Eastern Europe Emerging Asia-Pacific Sub-Saharan Africa 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 Spend (USD million) 25% 18% 14% 7% 7% 7% 4% 18% Hurdles 0% 12 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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Earlier this summer attack surface management (ASM) start-up Censys introduced its worldwide channel partner program with more than 10 companies initially participating. The company said the program offers a complete go-tomarket strategy that enables partners to “seamlessly bring an integrated, industryleading solution to customers worldwide.” Partners will have access to Censys’ training and events, lead sharing, not-for-resale licenses, a partner portal, margin structure and free attack surface management assessments. “Censys’ platform and capabilities will allow all partners to gain total internet visibility and grow a profitable security business,” said the company. Cloud commerce marketplace Pax8 recently announced a global agreement with Nord Security to offer two key products in the Nord Security portfolio: NordLayer and NordPass. This agreement is Nord Security’s first entry into the IT channel market through distribution. NordLayer is an ISO-certified adaptive network-access security solution that helps transition businesses to SASE, implement zero trust and leave outdated legacy solutions behind, said the company. It focuses on securing data from the device to the destination. This includes the journey to/from the cloud, applications and site-to-site, all through a single gateway without the need for multiple solutions or products. NordPass is a password manager with state-of-theart encryption, MFA and zero-knowledge architecture. NordPass shifts to proactive breach management with the native data breach scanner within the Security Dashboard to know which users are posing potential risks to corporate data, get detailed security insights, see breached domains and assess password strength. “Security is a huge focus for Pax8, and we are committed to partnering with the leading security vendors to enable MSPs to create the most comprehensive technology stack for their clients,” said Ryan Walsh, chief operating officer at Pax8. Study: SMBs Reach a Cybersecurity ‘Tipping Point’ Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of respondents surveyed by ConnectWise for its annual State of SMB Cybersecurity agree that their organization has reached a tipping point where cybersecurity concerns demand action. That’s likely the result of the fact that 76 percent of SMBs report that they have been impacted by at least one cybersecurity attack in 2021 – a considerable increase compared to 55 percent who said the same the year before. Consequently, 78 percent of SMB respondents say their organization is set to increase investment in cybersecurity in the next 12 months. However, a key challenge identified in the report is that two in three SMBs lack the expertise in-house to defend themselves against cybersecurity threats. Additionally, many SMBs are also feeling disillusioned or challenged with current partners tasked to provide the help they need, said ConnectWise, suggesting an opportunity for qualified partner providers. Percent of SMBs saying element is important when deciding if a provider has the “right” cybersecurity solution for them Confidence in the MSP ability to respond to security incidents 54% Capability/certifications of MSP resources/technicians 47% Trust in the MSP ability to deliver against the offering 46% Confidence in MSP helping to minimize damage/loss 44% Brand name recognition of MSP offerings 37% Fusion Connect has launched a comprehensive security offering with a new endpoint management and security service that allows businesses to identify, control and secure devices and applications. The new portfolio “enables organizations to understand the complete picture of their security risks and take action to mitigate them,” said the company. The complete solution secures against threats with advanced edge security for unified threat management (UTM) and remote access VPN to device level management. Additionally, the new portfolio helps organizations to improve reaction time to threats by connecting and securing any element in the organization’s environment, said the company. CYBER PATROL Censys Introduces Partner Program for ASM Pax8 Adds Nord Security to Platform Fusion Connect Introduces Extensive Security Portfolio 14 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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Network attackers get smarter by the day, while your customer’s access to critical data only grows more complex. Whether infrastructure is hosted in-house or on the cloud, it’s more vulnerable than ever. Updates handled at the back end tend to go unnoticed, while activity that seeps through can be easily overlooked by those less tech savvy. Your client’s visibility into their network is down at a time when they need safe, unfettered access like never before. According to a 2021 study conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group, 79 percent of organizations acknowledge asset visibility gaps in their cloud infrastructure, which was a 10 percent increase over 2020. Organizations also were reporting 3.3 times more incidents caused by a lack of visibility into IT assets, said Dave Gruber, ESG senior analyst. And while most cybersecurity software does a good job of securing their operations, your customers may still need more. Are you equipped to keep pace? By offering a comprehensive XDR (extended detection and response) service to your customers, you might just be. XDR is an emerging technology that protects against targeted attacks, unrecognized access and other types of cybercrime. This SaaS-based tool promises native integration with multiple types of security, offering threat detection and incident response as part of a larger, more comprehensive security operating system. The best part? XDR uses machine learning, analytics and automation to streamline processes, cut down on Your customers’ need for extended detection response CYBER PATROL UNDERSTANDING XDR By Brady Hicks 16 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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manual tasks and minimize human error. According to data published by Forrester Consulting, 60 percent of IT decision makers believe that security fails due to a lack of comprehension by IT network users, while 23 percent cited staff missteps while relying on manual processes. Regardless, cybersecurity worries grow almost by the day. Forrester estimated that 43 percent of respondents believe that a comprehensive XDR system may be best to eliminate widescale penetration, with about one third naming it a top focus, and 60 percent planning to launch or increase reliance on it over time. Making an ill-fitted security choice can have a devastating impact on an organization’s operations. Ballooning cost, loss of customer trust and critical breaches and security incidents are all a risky proposition. That’s where a trusted advisor comes into play. Whether you’re offering a comprehensive, automated XDR system, some alternative to that installation or something in between, matching the right form of cybersecurity to your customer is key to their success. You’ll need to factor in crucial aspects such as automation, management, data integrity and affordability. You’ll also need to determine that it promotes technical understanding by its users. In many cases, XDR deployments offer the best coverage. There are, however, some things to consider. Determining Customer Need For starters, how much protection does your client’s information and other critical assets need? While information integrity should never be skimped on, not all data needs the same level and methods of protection. Converse with your customer, ascertaining how you can most effectively scale cybersecurity involvement for them. In particular, focus on information-sharing practices, security need, client experiences and worstcase scenarios to determine a bestfitting option. One XDR benefit is its ability to more comprehensively protect against attack, breach and misuse, in most cases. Ideally, an implementation should assist, back up and reinforce integrity. XDR shines because it can cater to your customer’s unique operational needs. And while there’s no replacement for sound cybersecurity practices, a comprehensive fallback system never hurts. XDR can offer critical coverage that other security software types might overlook. Assessing IDP Speed Automation can be key. By rostering products that streamline intrusion detection and prevention (IDP) processes, you can confidently know you’re providing the fastest way to identify risk, isolate malicious actions and provide quick, accurate resolution. Another positive aspect of targeting automation is that it reduces human error. Whether an incident stems from a strained attack surface, malicious exploitation or software vulnerability, the door is usually opened by an internal mistake or neglected aspect. XDR offers machine learning to help intelligently identify, prioritize and address alerts in ways that other applications cannot. This aspect promotes a cybersecurity-focused culture, improves visibility, automates critical processes and decreases time-toresponse. An added benefit is accuracy. An XDR engine can reduce false flags, thus helping to make information safer, staff more productive and “alert fatigue” rendered nil. Considering Scalability Another key is to work with your customer to weigh the expansiveness of their assets – and the potential need for growth over time. Anecdotally, Forrester noted that 73 percent of organizations plan to go full-on “as a service” with their future XDR rollouts. By offering solutions that promote capacity on demand, you can provide more flexibility within your portfolio. This helps to make services more appealing to those looking to outsource complex cybersecurity and its management. Integration is Key Thirty-nine percent of respondents considered or are currently considering XDR solutions to improve the speed and accuracy of their organizations’ threat detection, show findings from Forrester. Meanwhile, 35 percent said What is driving or has driven your organization to consider using an XDR solution? Improved speed/accuracy of threat detection 39% Need for faster incident/event response workflows 35% More effective security with better incident management 35% Need for better security visibility across our entire IT infrastructure 32% We’ve heard that XDR has benefits from peers/competitors in the industry 29% Optimizing existing security toolsets 29% Improving productivity of existing security staff 27% Consolidation of security tools 26% Source: Forrester Research; sur vey of security strategy decision makers What do you envision are the outcomes of XDR benefits? Fewer security breaches 43% Greater customer trust 36% Lower expectations costs 36% Decreased rates of incidents 34% Improved customer experience 33% Positive brand reputation 31% Greater organizational efficiency 28% Greater employee experience 27% Source: Forrester Research; sur vey of security strategy decision makers CYBER PATROL 18 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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a need for faster incident and event response workflows is a key driver for consideration. Once procured, however, nearly three in four (73 percent) decision makers want XDR providers to be involved and integrated as a service into their security operations in some way. “This shows that firms, especially smaller ones, need help from XDR providers,” said Forrester researchers. “It also signals that XDR solutions with an integrated service may replace other service offerings like managed security services providers (MSSPs).” Benefits Beyond the Expected Decision-makers anticipate the benefits of XDR to include better protection of critical assets and improved threat hunting, but expectations around XDR benefits vary depending on experience, said Forrester analysts. “This reveals a knowledge gap between the true value that XDR offers and how it differs from other tools.” Those planning to implement XDR expect more benefits related to threat hunting, protection and detection. Yet those who have already implemented XDR find they have better threat response than expected (e.g., improved fidelity and prioritization of security alerts, better ability to consolidate disparate tools, more efficient investigations), show Forrester’s finings. “Experienced users signal that XDR solutions go beyond the expected toward improving visibility and measurement, reducing alert fatigue, enhancing automated processes, and decreasing response time within their organizations,” said the research firm. Weighing Competitive Offerings Many end users hesitate to roll out XDR because they are unsure about how to best implement its capabilities. Market fragmentation and varied pricing models only muddy the degree of bottom-line investment they can expect to incur. Additionally, XDR’s perception has been blurred by its closeness to other types of security software, especially for the more uninitiated, “hands-off” end user. Channel partners should be very wary when selecting a vendor’s services set, examining performance versus cost. If nothing else, revisit the idea of automation. Your customer will likely be more enticed by the reduction in manual tasks. The best way to retain confidence in your company is to promote solutions that offer the best balance of bottom-line security, automation and cost efficiency. In doing so, you can be well positioned to gain end-user loyalty toward your own brand as well as that of your vendor partner. For most end users, XDR’s capabilities offer a protective layer for their operations that simultaneously promote multi-faceted security, automate critical tasks and streamline complex operations, all while satisfying their concerns and needs. After all, malicious bad actors are cleverer than ever. They also understand your customer’s concerns and are ready to mishandle their assets to their own benefit. o CYBER PATROL CompTIA, 2022 Despite Increased Spending in IT, Complexity Continues to Rise Source: Enterprise Strategy Group How ha yo r business benefitted from conversation intelligence? Source: Observe.AI Source: Carmel Group U.S. Fixed-Wireless and Hybrid ISP Su Source: Altman Solon survey for Masergy, Reasons for Adopting SD-WA SD-WAN Adoption Driver S C agree or strongly agree it has created more transparency in their contact center Strongly agree Agree Not sure Disagree Strongly Disagree agree or strongly agree it has enabled better agent coaching agree or strongly agree it has helped improve agent performance programs agree or strongly agree it has helped improve their ability to engage with customers agree or strongly agree it has helped them assign agents to the right tasks agree or strongly agree it has helped bring down overall operating costs agree or strongly agree it has helped improve their products or services agree or strongly agree it has helped them make strategic business decisions SD-WAN adoption today vs. Source: Altman Solon survey for Masergy Cybersecurity services Internet of things p and recovery services lication/SaaS services om/Videoconferencing Print services 50% 50% 49% 46% 31% 23% 96% 94% 89% 89% 91% 87% 90% 92% 50% 18% 9% 1% 22% Equally complex as two years ago More complex than two years ago More efficient to deploy & manage Lower cost Quicker to deploy new lo ations or alter existing Ability to consolidate network onto one environment Ability to accommodate bandwidth variation More compatible with cloud requirements Improves network performance En bles orchestration across multiple types of access -79% of enterprises today have SD-WAN to some exten Today 21% 54% 16% 10 In general, how complex is your organizations’s IT environment relative to two years ago? (Percent of repondents, N-500) Less compleax than two years ago Significantly less complex than two years ago Significantly more complex than two years ago ? 2.3 2012 13.50 12.00 10.50 9.00 7.50 6.00 4.50 3.00 1.50 00.0 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 20 2.7 3.1 3.5 4.0 4.7 5. Millions of subscribers Users double every five years. No SD-WAN Some SD-WAN Mostly SD-WAN Full SD-W Source: Forrester Research; survey of security strategy decision makers Source: Altman Solon survey for “What do you anticipate the benefits are of implementing XDR solutions at your organization?” Network management ce? Source: Carmel Group U.S. Fixed-Wireless and Hybrid ISP Subscriber Growth, 2012-2025 Reasons for Adopting SD-WAN SD-WAN Adoption Driver Share of Respondents Current Adopters, N-245 enter Disagree stomers 41% 22% 21% 31% 20% 32% 37% 27% 28% 29% 30% 31% 31% 34% 34% 57% 59% 57% % % More efficient to deploy & manage Better protection of business-critical assets Implemented Planning to implement Improved fidelity and prioritization of security alerts to make it easier to triage and respond to events (leading to improved response time) Improved security operations (e.g. monitoring, visualization, query investigation, etc.) Better ability to consolidate disparate tools into a common threat detection and response architecture More automated incident response More efficient threat/forensic investigations (i.e., data enrichment, ttack itemlines, etc.) Better detection of unknown, advanced threats that may go undetected with curent tools Improved threat hunting 29% 2.3 2012 13.50 12.00 10.50 9.00 7.50 6.00 4.50 3.00 1.50 00.0 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021E 2022E 2023E 2024E 2025E 2.7 3.1 3.5 4.0 4.7 5.3 5.9 6.9 7.8 8.8 10 11.3 12.7 Millions of subscribers Users double every five years. 38% DIY Co-Managed Managed 45% 40% 15% Traditional WAN-Only (No SD-WAN) Today 20 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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Narrowing the view to the three types of SD-WAN architecture HITTING THE TARGET By Martin Vilaboy VIRTUAL REALITIES SD-WAN is safely past its “peak of overinflated expectations,” and yet still a good majority of the dollars that eventually will be spent on transitioning private networks to software defined has yet to come. According to TeleGeography’s deep dive into the wide area network market, SD-WAN accounts for just 5 percent of WAN spending by global enterprises, accounting for about $3 billion. Techaisle surveys, meanwhile, counted 10 percent of SMBs as users of an SD-WAN, while Aryaka reported a similar 11 percent adoption in its most recent “Global State of the WAN” survey. That’s the same percentage that reported to “deploying now.” Indeed, MPLS still dominates global enterprise spending. According to TeleGeography’s figures, MPLS is worth $17 billion and maintains 29 percent of the global WAN market. “Together, MPLS and access loops connecting to MPLS POPs account for 60 percent of the market for large multinational enterprise WANs,” said the research firm. Altogether, MPLS and DIA port charges remain the largest contributor at $33.6 billion, followed by local access charges at $22.1 billion. 22 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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“SD-WAN adoption is ramping up globally, but MPLS still remains the dominant networking technology,” TeleGeography senior manager Greg Bryan recently told Network World. “It’s interesting to note that DIA market share is larger than SD-WAN.” While MPLS and private line aren’t about to disappear, Bryan expects the “vast majority of multinational enterprises are going to adopt SD-WAN over the coming years.” Among mid-sized firms, Techaisle researchers expect SMB adoption of SD-WAN to grow by as much as 145 percent. Techaisle found a high awareness of SD-WAN among U.S. SMBs and an understanding of the importance of proactive network management and network performance. The top motivators for SD-WAN consideration among SMBs surveyed by Techaisle are improving network and application performance, enabling network resiliency and failover, better management of application data traffic, and consistent security and connectivity across locations. The large opportunity notwithstanding, SD-WAN has become a bit of a bucket term, entailing much more than one option for the customer. Like most new or emerging platforms, SD-WAN is a technology, not a solution or service. Different types of solutions are built using the technology, and pitching the wrong type of SD-WAN solution to the right customer is a waste of everyone’s time. So, at the risk of over simplifying, generalizing and missing important exceptions, here’s a breakdown of the three types of SD-WAN architectures widely available to adopters and partners, including a profile of the ideal customers for each. SD-WAN DIY The first type of architecture is where SD-WAN started and is the simplest of the three formations. It’s generally referred to as either “edgebased” or “CPE-based” SD-WAN, and it consists of SD-WAN appliances located at two or more customer locations that talk to each other and measure latency, congestion, etc. The appliances can sit behind routers or replace them and can collapse other services in the typical branch stack by replacing appliances for WAN optimization and firewalls. This type of SD-WAN is a relatively simple, affordable, quick and flexible way to gain insight and optimization of traffic over a pair of MPLS, private line or internet links while also providing automatic failover. The boxes are touted as plug-and-play and connections as secure. But that’s only between the boxes and their respective locations. Edge-based SD-WANs rely on two devices talking to each other to measure and shape the network traffic between them. There is no service provider POP or gateway to the “cloud” in this scenario, just the links between locations, so the abilities to do dynamic path selection don’t extend out to cloud and SaaS-based services. While it can provide better and speedier access to cloud and SaaS tools, quality of service and traffic shaping can be controlled only at the edge. This premises-based SD-WAN is most attractive to organizations with a DIY spirit that run a lot of in-house applications and operations housed in data centers, rather than a cloudcentric architecture. One common small configuration includes bonding an MPLS link for voice, video/virtual desktop with an SD-WAN-controlled internet link for everything else. Again, this is a relatively affordable, simple, flexible way to “digitally transform” an existing private network. (Editor’s note: We soon could see an edge-based SD-WAN solution that has the unique ability to take round trip measurements to optimize SaaSbased applications.) Through the Gateway For the second SD-WAN architecture we’ll discuss, which generally is described as a “gateway-based” or “orchestrator” SD-WAN, a provider’s gateway device acts as that second device that the edge-based device talks to in order to measure packet loss, jitter, latency and congestion over a bonded pair of two or more circuits. This introduces an orchestration layer between the CPE hardware and the network to create a true softwaredefined or virtual network. It provides all the same functions as an edgebased SD-WAN plus the additional benefits of a cloud infrastructure. These cloud gateways can be thought of as large, multitenant SD-WAN devices deployed into top-tier data centers across the globe. “Instead of just QoS at the edge for SaaS apps, companies can now leverage gateways to optimize the majority of the route to the applications they’re accessing,” posted Sarah Arnstein, sales engineer at Avant Communications. “In fact, these gateways are Spending in IT, Complexity Continues to Rise gy Group Source: Carmel Group Source: Altman Solon survey for Masergy, February 2021 Reasons for Adopting SD-WAN SD-WAN Adoption Driver Share of Respondents Current Adopters, N-245 more transparency in their contact center sure Disagree Strongly Disagree better agent coaching mprove agent performance programs mprove their ability to engage with customers em assign agents to the right tasks ing down overall operating costs mprove their products or services em make strategic business decisions SD-WAN adoption today vs. in 5 years Source: Altman Solon survey for Masergy, February 2021 50% More complex than two years ago More efficient to deploy & manage Lower cost Quicker to deploy new locations or alter existing Ability to consolidate network onto one environment Ability to accommodate bandwidth variation More compatible with cloud requirements Improves network performance Enables orchestration across multiple types of access -79% of enterprises today have adopted SD-WAN to some extent In 5 years, -92 of ente adopt SD-WAN and 38% it at all loc Today 21% 54% 16% 10% 8% 25% 28% In 5 Years In general, how complex is your organizations’s IT environment relative to two years ago? (Percent of repondents, N-500) ? 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021E 2022E 2023E 2024E 38% 38% 34% 24% 22% 19% 18% 17% No SD-WAN Some SD-WAN Mostly SD-WAN Fully SD-WAN No SD-WAN Some SD-WAN Most SD-W VIRTUAL REALITIES 24 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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often deployed in the same data centers as major SaaS applications, optimizing traffic from end to end.” There is still some reliance on the public internet in this set-up, but if an internet circuit drops down and the enterprise uses a secondary internet line, SD-WAN will re-route their cloud applications onto that secondary line, without losing the current session. In turn, this method of delivering SD-WAN is ideal for organizations that are reliant on a lot of cloud and SaaS applications within a given region or country. “Choose this option if you want to mesh sites with your existing firewall while migrating into the cloud,” advised executives at BCM One. “This is also an excellent solution for single-site organizations, fully-cloud operations or organizations with multiple locations that do not need site meshing.” Loosely within this category falls an SD-WAN version whereby the provider (typically a carrier) deploys edge devices in the cloud, “essentially turning them into a gateway- or POP-based SD-WAN solution,” explained Arnstein. This architecture is sometime described as telco-provided or carrier-managed SD-WAN, offering installation and delivery of the connectivity, as well as any appliance, often along with SLAs. Security capabilities may be supplied by a managed SD-WAN service provider based on customer requirements, and the burden of managing the SD-WAN controller, or central management tool, moves from the end user ’s IT department to the provider. SD-WAN as a managed service, instead of buying the appliances from a vendor, tends to cost about 1.9 times more than the DIY approach, according to TeleGeography, but the research firm also found that using an SD-WAN implementation can save organizations 50 percent or more compared to traditional WANs. “This can be a great solution for companies interested in the features of a particular edge-based platform but looking for a gateway/POP solution to optimize SaaS,” Arnstein explained. Added Backbone Whether or not a telco/managed SD-WAN configuration is as robust and reliable as a true “born in the cloud” SD-WAN depends on the specific carrier. In this third type of cloud-plus-backbone SD-WAN architecture, the SD-WAN box connects to a provider’s nearest point of presence (POP), where the traffic is switched to that provider’s private network backbone (similar to an MPLS link). These types of SD-WANs commonly are described as NaaS (network as a service) or POP-based SD-WANs. “POPs serve as a second, multitenant SD-WAN device to help optimize the traffic between the client site and the cloud,” said Arnstein. Redirecting traffic to an SD-WAN provider’s private backbone means reduced levels of latency, jitter and packet loss and increased traffic performance, reliability and security. And similar to the gateway-based architecture, the backbones tend to be straightforwardly connected with the leading cloud app providers, such as Office 365 and AWS, thereby improving the reliability and the overall VIRTUAL REALITIES U.S. Carrier Managed SD-WAN Services Leader Board (YEAR-END 2021) RANK SD-WAN PROVIDERS 1. AT&T 2. Comcast Business 3. Hughes 4. Verizon 5. Lumen 6. Windstream 7. Aryaka CHALLENGER TIER (in alphabetical order): Fusion Connect, MetTel, TPx Ranking based on installed and billable U.S. managed SD-WAN sites at yearend 2021 Source: Vertical Systems Group What are potential barriers that you see to SD-WAN adoption in your organization? (Among global enterprises) Answer Choices 2022 2021 Lack of knowledge or skill sets of internal employees 31% 33% Internal politics 30% 27% Application performance concerns for remote locations globally (most solutions are regional) 29% 36% Will result in increased spending 29% 29% It’s still very new technology 28% 31% Will result in additional complexity 28% 29% Lack of will in IT leadership 27% 30% Lack of SLAs 21% 22% There are no barriers to adoption 10% 9% Other 1% 1% Source: Aryaka SOTW 26 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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