Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD WAN or SD-WAN) allows company employees to securely connect to applications more efficiently using lower-cost and commercially available Internet access than with traditional WAN infrastructure. Traditional WAN typically requires directing all traffic, including traffic destined to the cloud, from branch offices to a hub or headquarters data center. The delay causes decreased performance resulting in a poor user experience and lost productivity. By contrast, an SD WAN solution uses a centralized control function to securely and intelligently direct traffic across the WAN. It is more scalable, especially with increased adoption of high-bandwidth applications such as streaming and teleconferencing. SD WAN products can be physical appliances or virtual appliances (SD WAN hardware or SD WAN software), and are placed in small remote and branch offices, larger offices, corporate data centers, and increasingly on cloud platforms. SD WAN vendors transcend companies traditionally in the service provider, networking, and cybersecurity industries. Leading SD WAN vendors include Aryaka Networks, VeloCloud (VMware), Silver Peak Systems, Viptela (Cisco), Cisco Meraki, Infovista, Citrix, Talari (Oracle), FatPipe Networks, Fortinet, and Cradlepoint. You can find the SD WAN market share, industry size, and other statistics below.
This chart shows the market size and growth of the SD WAN Infrastructure industry from 2016 to 2021. In 2020, the size of the industry was $3.3B and is projected to grow 27% in 2021. From 2016 to 2021, the industry growth is projected to be an average of 52%.
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This chart shows the SD WAN Market Share in 2018. The leading vendor in the SD WAN Infrastructure Industry is Cisco with 46% SD WAN Market Share, followed by VMWare with 9%, Silver Peak with 7%, Nokia-Nuage with 5%, Riverbed with 4%, Aryaka with 4%, and Huawei with 3%. View the source for this SD WAN Market Share chart and other SD WAN market share estimates here.
Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD WAN) is one of the fastest-growing Networking Industries. The high growth in global SD WAN is driven by increased cloud adoption, decreased cost, the need for greater network visibility and scalability, and improved security. Cloud adoption is booming and SD WAN provides companies the capability to scale their cloud-enabled networks in a more cost-efficient manner across a wider geographic breadth. The rise of managed Software Defined WAN services, especially from service providers will continue to make SD WAN technology more accessible to more organizations, especially as they increasingly use cloud-based applications and solutions. A key component to cost drivers is the shortage of skilled network engineers. SD WAN requires fewer IT personnel to manage a company’s WAN. Due to the incredible growth of cloud computing and SD WAN’s high growth, SD WAN Market Share may be disrupted over the next several years.
Access These Reports & MoreMarket Research Sources disagree intensely on the SD WAN market share and industry size, but agree that the SD WAN market growth is exploding. The cause of disagreement is due to the lack of a standardized definition of SD WAN and what types of products should be included. Therefore different sources may have very different perspectives of SD WAN market share and SD WAN industry size. For a complete evaluation of the SD WAN market, T4 recommends exploring all available sources. T4 has aggregated and organized the data from these sources on the T4 Industry Research Platform. See each source’s view of the SD WAN market on the T4 Platform.
T4 comprehensively aggregated more than 70 reports from more than 30 publishers covering statistics and trends in the Software-Defined Wide Area Network - SD WAN Industry. This includes SD WAN market share by vendor, SD WAN market size, SD WAN revenue by vertical industry (including Banking & Financial Services, Tech, Retail & Consumer, Healthcare, and Government), SD WAN revenue by region, SD WAN by deployment type (cloud vs on-premise vs service), SD WAN install base, and more than 20 additional SD WAN statistics. SD WAN falls under T4’s Networking coverage. Industries in the T4 taxonomy related to SD WAN include Wide Area Networking (WAN), Hybrid WAN, Software Defined Networks (SDN), MPLS, VPN, WAN Optimization, WAN Edge Infrastructure, and Software-Defined Networking, Related subcategories of SD WAN include SD WAN Managed Services, Wireless SD WAN, and Enterprise SD WAN. You can find reports covering these industries on T4’s Platform.
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