SD-WAN
Channel opportunities SD-WAN is a maturing technology and demand for it is growing quickly in the UK, which means there are opportunities for businesses in the channel to capitalise on.
as the user’s experience of the app. This has two major benefits; it puts the user experience first so they have the best experience possible and helps IT and operations staff identify issues quickly and effectively should there be any issues that the SD- WAN automation cannot fix.” Opportunities for the channel With the growth in demand for SD-WAN, it gives businesses in the channel a range of opportunities to capitalise on with customers. “SD-WAN offers some really interesting opportunities for the channel, because SD-WAN is a software-led solution,” says Jonathan Wright, director of products and operations at Global Cloud Xchange. “New solutions can be made by splitting the network overlay from the underlay of access circuits. This means that channel partners can either run and manage an SD-WAN overlay or be an integrator and manager for the network underlay. This split was much more problematic under MPLS solutions, so an SD-WAN solution can lend itself to partners who don’t have the expertise or relationships to deliver and support network circuits in a specific region, because more customers want to manage the overlay centrally. “Further, by having more globally ubiquitous solutions, it’s easier for a channel to be able to sell SD-WAN solutions because they tend to have less regional technical variations in the supporting services, so channels may be able to engage in global opportunities that previously, may have been too difficult to put together. Likewise, once a customer has an SD-WAN solution, there is an ability for other channel partners to add security overlay solutions, firewalling, and even links towards SASE (secure access service edge) services.” Consultative approach For businesses in the channel to make the best use of the opportunities presented by SD-WAN, Jonathan recommends they take a consultative approach with customers. “Businesses should really look to understand what a customer wants to achieve out of their networking over the next few years, and the chances are the answer will be SD- WAN or something like it. “But there are still customers with topologies based around datacentres and MPLS services are
Software-Defined Wide Area Network – better known as SD-WAN – may have been available for some time, but demand for it is increasing from businesses, and it is predicted to have 14% CAGR between now and 2026, according to Gartner. “We’ve seen significant growth in the market for IT and SD-WAN in the UK, despite economic challenges of inflation and project spending freezes,” says Adam Hartley, senior sales engineer at Forcepoint. “Analysts predict that the SD-WAN market will be worth $10-$15 billion in 2023, with the UK accounting for 30% of the global market valuation. Every day, we see more organisations realising the benefit of SD-WAN, even more so as they realise access and software-as-a-service (SaaS) application experience is a key metric for them.” There are several reasons why businesses are moving in increasing numbers to SD-WAN from existing WAN solutions, according to Adam: “Cost savings is one; SD-WAN fits every organisation, even a small business employing no more than five people. One of the biggest business benefits is saving MPLS line costs and huge upfront capital expenditure,” he says. “Another benefit is prioritisation of internet bandwidth for applications. For example, we all use video sharing apps like Teams or Zoom, as well as cloud resources. But how do you ensure your video call is the best it can be? Will it use the ISP router or your 5G router? What happens if the main internet line goes down? Will it automatically move and prioritise traffic to your other internet providers, or will you have to send an engineer to manually change over a cable? “Additionally, how do you connect your office workers to your security stack without installing another agent? What about that printer in the office that cannot be traditionally protected? How do you ensure that isn’t being used to take data off the network? All of these are great use cases we see daily for SD-WAN projects.” Adam adds that SD-WAN, while a mature technology, is continuing to adapt to customer needs at pace. “The biggest demand we’re seeing is in application performance,” he says. “This is where we measure not only the traditional side of networking, but we also look at an application and how it is performing, as well
Once a customer has an SD-WAN solution, there is an ability for other channel partners to add security overlay solutions, firewalling, and even links “
towards SASE (secure access service edge) services.
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Adam Hartley Forcepoint
forcepoint.com
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