Jul/Aug 19 - ChannelVision Magazine

virtual reality networks was the most common approach for 39 percent of partner respondents. About a quarter of revenue, meanwhile, came from “greenfield” deployments where no existing WAN was in place, sug- gesting SD-WAN might be growing the wide area networking pie, pre- sumably due to its ability to allow customers to better leverage their public internet connections. Incidentally, in a similar but much larger online poll conducted by Heavy Reading, solution providers were asked, “How do you approach cus- tomer MPLS networks in the age of SD-WAN?” Nearly 250 respondents, or 62 percent of solution providers, picked a hybrid approach, while 116 (29 percent) chose rip ‘n’ replace, and only 30 (8 percent) said they stuck with MPLS, show the findings. Demand & Adoption In the early days of SD-WAN, proponents warned aspiring pro- viders to avoid de-valuing the breakthrough technology by lead- ing with a “cheaper than MPLS” pitch. Nonetheless, SD-WAN has been positioned as a cost-savings mechanism. The good news is, it doesn’t seem providers have over- played this hand. According to find- ings from a new survey performed by IDG on behalf of Masergy (a follow-up to a similar 2017 survey), there is an increased comfort with SD-WAN among IT buyers and an SD-WAN Buyer/User Criteria Most Important Potential IT Benefits May 2019 July 2017 Simplified network management 46% 49% Ability to customize the WAN with features I want 40% 33% Future-proofing the WAN 33% 40% Centralized orchestration and policy management 31% 46% Reduction in human error 31% 22% Better support for branch network connections 30% 32% Augmenting MPLS 27% 12% Most Important Potential Business Benefits May 2019 July 2017 Increased efficiency 62% 52% Increased security 60% 45% Cost savings 50% 36% Increased agility 49% 60% Increased redundancy 26% 32% Most Important Solution Capabilities May 2019 July 2017 Secure local internet connectivity 52% 46% Cloud connectivity 48% 47% Centralized policy and configuration management 44% 58% Real-time analytics and service control 42% 39% Rapid and remote connectivity 41% 35% Fully integrate with MPLS and Ethernet WAN 41% 34% Application-based routing 31% 38% Access and transport agnostic 26% 25% Cloud SLA 26% 12% Source: IDG, Masergy 5G l Sourc De AI Series A Deals Source: CB Insight Declin Prefer not to say More than 200 51 - 100 10 - 50 Less than 10 2% 5% 12% 49% 31% Befor 2020 2022 0M 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 1B 2B 3B 4B 5B -200 0 -400 -600 -800 -1k -1.2k Funding Amounts ($) Number of Deals Channel Partner SD-WAN Customers to Date Source: Heavy Reading 33 July - August, 2019 | Channel Vision