In this technology assessment for SD-WAN, IDC evaluates the market potential of SD-WAN solutions, including products (hardware/software) and services (CSP, MSP, and cloud managed).

This study includes:
  • About 64% of respondents to IDC’s 2016 Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Survey indicated that SaaS would be important to their organization’s WAN technology choices within the next two years.
  • SD-WAN business benefits include providing cost-effective delivery of business applications, satisfying the requirements of the modern branch/remote site, accommodating SaaS and cloud-based applications and services, and improving branch-IT efficiency through automated service provisioning.
  • IDC sees SD-WAN as the first step in a long-term push by service providers to offer a broader set of WAN-edge virtual network services that will expand the service provider footprint in the enterprise and offset any potential erosion in the WAN transport business.