FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- International Data Corporation (IDC) has published two new research reports on the fast-growing Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) infrastructure market. This important segment of the enterprise networking market will grow at a 30.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2018 to 2023 to reach $5.25 billion, according to IDC's SD-WAN Infrastructure Forecast. The IDC Market Shares report includes 2017 and 2018 revenues by vendor for SD-WAN infrastructure. 

"SD-WAN continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments of the network infrastructure market, driven by a variety of factors. First, traditional enterprise WANs are increasingly not meeting the needs of today's modern digital businesses, especially as it relates to supporting SaaS apps and multi- and hybrid-cloud usage. Second, enterprises are interested in easier management of multiple connection types across their WAN to improve application performance and end-user experience," said Rohit Mehra, vice president, Network Infrastructure. "Combined with the rapid embrace of SD-WAN by leading communications service providers globally, these trends continue to drive deployments of SD-WAN, providing enterprises with dynamic management of hybrid WAN connections and the ability to guarantee high levels of quality of service on a per-application basis." 

The SD-WAN infrastructure market continues to be highly competitive with sales increasing 64.9% in 2018 to $1.37 billion. Incumbent networking vendors have leveraged their technological strengths and installed bases in routing and WAN optimization sales to lead the market, while numerous start-ups remain active. IDC finds that Cisco holds the largest share of the SD-WAN infrastructure market, fueled by its extensive routing portfolio that is used in SD-WAN deployments, as well as its Meraki portfolio and its SD-WAN management platform powered by technology it acquired from Viptela in August 2017. VMware, with its SD-WAN service powered by VeloCloud (which VMware acquired in December 2017), holds the second largest market share in the SD-WAN infrastructure market, followed by Silver Peak, Nokia-Nuage, and Riverbed. 

IDC's Market Share and Market Forecast reports focus specifically on the SD-WAN infrastructure market, which includes both hardware and software used in SD-WAN deployments. IDC defines SD-WAN as a dynamic, policy-enabled hybrid WAN that uses at least two or more connection methods (such as MPLS, broadband internet, 3G/4G, etc.) and includes a centralized application-based policy controller that provides intelligent path selection, along with an optional forwarder for routing capability. The SD-WAN infrastructure Market Share and Forecast reports do not include managed services related to SD-WAN, such as setup or operational support, nor do they include connectivity costs. 

IDC