As enterprise networks continue to grow in complexity, information technology departments are under immense pressure to provide reliable and secure access to all users regardless of their location. Software-defined wide-area networking addresses the challenges of managing hybrid and multicloud environments by automatically adapting to changing network conditions.

SD-WAN adoption is expected to expand over the next few of years, with most companies implementing some type of solution by 2026, according to Masergy Communications Inc.’s new 2021 State of SD-WAN Study released late last month. Masergy, in partnership with Altman Solon, surveyed 314 IT decision makers in the U.S. across 20 industries as part of the study. Here are some of the key findings:

SD-WAN is gaining traction in the enterprise, driven by digital transformation initiatives, the move to network-hungry cloud applications, budget cuts and security concerns, among other factors. Over the next five years, a whopping 92% of the survey respondents said they plan to adopt SD-WAN, citing efficiency (38%), cost savings (38%), and agility (34%) as the main motivators. As of now, 79% of companies have already adopted SD-WAN.

Agility currently ranks third in reasons why businesses are currently looking at SD-WAN, but I believe it will be the overwhelming top response in 24 months. SD-WANs certainly do save money and make the network more efficient but those don’t really have a big impact business. Increasing agility aligns the network with applications and the goals of the business and enables the network to become an enabler of digital transformation.

Although only 38% of sites use SD-WAN today, location penetration is expected to increase to 64% by 2026. More than half of companies (58%) will use a hybrid SD-WAN model — which includes a mix of public and private access — over the next five years. One of the biggest benefits of SD-WAN is the ability to link up sites using multiple connections from different providers and different types of transport, including long-term evolution or LTE, multiprotocol label switching or MPLS and broadband internet.

The large number of companies might be a surprise to some given the hype around SD-WAN today, but the reality is, private networks offer the best performance for critical business applications, such as video and voice. One day, long into the future, private networks might go away, but that’s decades away. Rarely does a new technology eradicate an existing one overnight. Businesses still run traditional data centers, PSTN voice and even mainframes. With SD-WAN, MPLS is the right decision, particularly for large, global companies that need the network to be predictable.

The findings show IT leaders prefer co-managed models and hybrid network architectures that combine public and private connectivity. Those that already have public-only and private-only SD-WAN access are looking to transition to hybrid access to improve performance of critical apps and to cut costs. In fact, both private-only access users (63%) and public-only access users (55%) are considering a shift to hybrid access.

SD-WAN-enabled networks can simultaneously provide different connectivity options companies need to support remote work, which is a major benefit named by IT decision-makers looking to transition to hybrid access. Private-only users need hybrid access for remote work, whereas public SD-WAN users are looking to boost network reliability and performance for cloud apps.

Those who are satisfied with public access don’t anticipate needing private access because most of their apps are already in the cloud. Nevertheless, private connectivity will continue to play an important role in backing up SD-WAN architectures. Companies with hybrid access environments will need private connectivity for sites and apps that have higher performance and security requirements.

Companies deploying SD-WAN are relying more on managed service partners or MSPs to offload some of the burden. According to IT decision-makers surveyed in the study, only 23% currently use a do-it-yourself solution, while 77% use a fully managed or co-managed solution. Additionally, 76% of buyers claim networks have become more complex and their companies don’t have the internal capabilities to successfully manage them.

The data suggests IT decision-makers will continue choosing MSPs for their SD-WAN deployments. When selecting MSPs, security and reliability are at the top of the list. For approximately half of the respondents, solution reliability and performance — including service-level agreements — were a common consideration. Meanwhile, about 60% believe network security is a critical component and they’re not willing to consider any MSPs that are lacking in security.

The shift to fully or co-managed services is a significant transition for the WAN, since historically only about a quarter of companies used an MSP for their legacy network. The reason for the large jump in the use of an MSP is that SD-WANs can be more complex given the number of points to consider. With a traditional WAN, there was only one way to architect it, making the deployment relatively simple. With SD-WANs, network engineers need to contemplate issues such as where to use broadband, how security is deployed, the use of local hardware and the cloud, and the like. MSPs can greatly reduce the complexity of deployment.

Most companies are taking an incremental approach to deploying SD-WAN. More than half of the respondents (52%) want to gradually modernize their IT infrastructure with SD-WAN rather than ripping and replacing their entire infrastructure, which is the case for only 4% of the respondents.

Secure access service edge, known as SASE, is the next level of enterprise networking for companies that want to combine the elements of SD-WAN and network security into a single cloud-based service. SASE addresses the security demands today’s networks face. Yet the technology is still not well-understood. Roughly 82% of IT decision-makers were familiar with the term SASE, but only 32% knew the technology and its implications for their business.

Not surprisingly, SD-WAN users had a deeper understanding of SASE than traditional WAN users. SASE requires a comprehensive technology portfolio, which only some vendors can provide. A knowledgeable vendor can help companies build solutions that address their specific needs, easing the transition to SASE by progressively retiring their legacy network.

The low adoption of SASE shouldn’t be a big surprise. Although it might be the most hyped technology right now, we are early in the deployment cycle and it seems almost every vendor has its own definition. It’s easily the technology that I’m asked about most often by end users, but most of the inquiries revolve around what it is, how it coexists with current on-premises infrastructure, what are the steps to deployment and other educational questions.

The world is becoming more dynamic, digital and distributed and that’s shifting the role of the network. What was once something most business leaders didn’t think about is now perhaps the most critical element of IT infrastructure as it connects users to apps to devices to clouds.

One can think of the network as the foundation for digital businesses. SD-WANs are the right network for digital organizations. The survey data shows that most organizations are well on their way to deploying SD-WANs and, in the future, SASE. Organizations that aren’t are putting their digital futures at risk.

Zeus Kerravala is a principal analyst at ZK Research, a division of Kerravala Consulting. He wrote this article for SiliconANGLE.

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