ChannelVision Playbook 13

few sites – and don’t do much inter- site communication (for example it’s all through a SaaS app, such as Of- fice365) – SD-WAN may not be neces- sary to begin with. The number of sites also is a fac- tor for large organizations. Are they global? Are they running critical ap- plications across large networks that traverse multiple carriers and regions? The amount of control and visibility required for certain applications is key to determining whether or not an organization would be best served building an SD-WAN internally or using an MSP. For example, with big retail- ers, most locations have to go back through centralized applications for real-time process queries, checkouts, inventory, etc. This means the WAN is critical to business operations, so they might choose to deploy and manage it internally for ultimate control. Expertise Can Tip the Scales While building an SD-WAN in- house is much easier than raw WAN construction or VPN deployments, it still requires some expertise. When evaluating the best technology ap- proach to SD-WAN, every organization must establish a complete understand- ing of the networking team’s skillset. Network engineers with excellent tech- nical chops are a must for rolling out and maintaining large deployments, especially at scale and in mixed WAN environments (after all, who is going to set all the policies, deploy vEdge de- vices, make routing changes on legacy networks, etc.?). Customers need to ask themselves what happens when the SD-WAN is performing sub-optimally, which could be due to errors specifying the policy or due to bugs causing con- nectivity issues to particular sites or the controller. If the management of the SD-WAN is outsourced to a pro- vider, organizations are heavily reliant on the MSP for a fix (just like using any SaaS app). This can be a major objection for companies considering outsourcing an SD-WAN deployment. That’s why it’s so important that you understand these potential risks and build a plan for how to deliver critical applications. Businesses will need to figure out if they’re comfortable having an MSP fix issues or if certain applica- tions are essential enough that they want complete control. The Value of Visibility At the end of the day, whether companies decide to build an SD- WAN themselves or rely on a service provider, they still need visibility into the performance of key applications. For those that elect to build and man- age their SD-WAN in-house, unified network performance monitoring and diagnostic (NPMD) solutions can help Most Profitable SD-WAN Partner Model Q: Which approach is more profitable for you? Critical/Very Im Source: Heavy Reading AI Se Source: C End Users Biggest Complaints about SD-WAN Solution Provider Source: Cato Networks, March 2018 Web Traffic Breakdown Prefer More Les Don’t know/not sure SD-WAN vendor DIY Carrier provided managed SD-WAN They are about equality prifitable 25% T o complex 20% Poor service and support 19% Unpredictable application 16% Cloud datacenters are diffcult to deploy 13% Slow application performance 7% Lacks security (Select no more than three responses) 0M 1B 2B 3B 4B 5B Funding Chan Source Security c Available features Level of control into Flexibili Ability to custo Most Profitable SD-WAN Partner Model Q: Which approach is more profitable for you? Source: Heavy Reading End Users Biggest Complaints about SD-WAN Solution Provider Source: Cato Networks, March 2018 Don’t know/not sure SD-WAN vendor DIY Carrier provided managed SD-WAN They are about equality prifitable 25% Too complex 20% Poor service and support 19% Unpredictable application 16% Cloud datacenters are diffcult to deploy 13% Slow application performance 7% Lacks security (Select no more than thr e responses) 24 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK