SD-WAN: A key enabler for remote workforces and enhanced security

For the third year SD-WAN adoption continues to grow with an ever-increasing interest in managed and co-managed offerings to navigate through the complexities of an integrated network and security solution, Masergy reveals.

Single strategy

The timing of the survey during the global pandemic uncovered the challenges posed in a work-from-home environment with security and business continuity rising as top priorities.

The study analyzes responses from IT decision makers in global enterprises across a variety of industries. Findings reveal that security and network infrastructure are the top two areas of focus to ensure business continuity and enable remote work.

Converging the network and security into a single strategy is also important today, as is having a managed service provider for assistance.

SD-WAN adoption: Key findings

• Enabling remote work and collaboration tools are now top IT investments with 44 percent of respondents prioritizing the support of their homebound workforces.
• 64 percent of survey participants report they are investing more in network infrastructure than they did last quarter, and SD-WAN adoption trends have continued to rise with each study. This year, 56 percent of respondents said they are piloting, installing, or upgrading SD-WAN installations. In 2017, that number was 35 percent.
• Security remains an overwhelming focus with 91 percent of survey participants expressing interest in services that converge SD-WAN and security – also known as secure access service edge (SASE) solutions.
• Multi-cloud connectivity ranks as the top SD-WAN capability (66 percent) as IT leaders look to address the challenges of cloud application performance and communications continuity.
• Enterprises are shifting more toward wanting a managed SD-WAN solution with 45 percent opting for a fully-managed approach, and 29 percent opting for co-managed, while just 25 percent prefer a do-it-yourself approach.

“With working from home emerging as the ‘new normal,’ supporting remote workers has increased the urgency with which IT departments are approaching their network, security, and cloud infrastructures,” said Becky Carr, CMO, Masergy.

“As such, it is not surprising to see the transformative impact of SD-WAN and SASE solutions become the new necessity for achieving secure remote access and reliable performance for cloud applications.”