DALLAS – Masergy, the software-defined network and cloud platform for the digital enterprise, today announced results from its new 2020 SD-WAN Market Trends Report. For the third year, the study shows that 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. 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.
Conducted in partnership with IDG Research, 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.
Key findings from the 2020 survey include:
Enabling remote work and collaboration tools are now top IT investments with 44% of respondents prioritizing the support of their homebound workforces.
Nearly two-thirds of survey participants (64%) 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% of respondents said they are piloting, installing, or upgrading SD-WAN installations. In 2017, that number was 35%.
Security remains an overwhelming focus with 91% 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%) 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% opting for a fully-managed approach, and 29% opting for co-managed, while just 25% prefer a do-it-yourself approach.
Download the Masergy 2020 SD-WAN Market Trends Report for a detailed view into the research results, and enjoy the highlights with our informative infographic.
Masergy Communications Inc.