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SD-WAN deployments up, but networking and security challenges persist

960 640 Stuart O'Brien
 
New research has highlighted the improved network security, connectivity, flexibility, and cost savings enabled by SD-WAN , but says 98% of IT leaders cite networking challenges with their current WAN setup.

The report from Barracuda Networks includes data from more than 900 respondents in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.

Respondents come from companies ranging from 1,000 to more than 5,000 employees across multiple sectors, including healthcare, finance, education, manufacturing, public sector, and retail.

Overall, the study indicates that SD-WAN deployments are increasing to address networking challenges resulting from the explosive growth of WAN traffic due to high demand for cloud applications and services. Security remains a top concern for an overwhelming majority of IT leaders as they consider upgrading to an SD-WAN solutions.

Highlights include:

  • Networking challenges are common with current WAN setups.
    • Top three challenges are complexity (48%), cloud performance (47%), and performance between locations (46%).
  • SD-WAN deployments are on the rise.
    • One-third have already deployed SD-WAN in most of their sites, and 49 percent are in the process of doing so or will in the next year.
    • 70 percent of IT leaders said they risk losing a competitive advantage if they don’t update their WAN.
  • Security is a top priority when choosing an SD-WAN solution.
    • 81 percent said advanced threat protection and centralized management were very important or crucial to their SD-WAN purchase.
  • SD-WAN offers improved security and lower costs.
    • Most common benefits of SD-WAN deployments are improved network security (57%), connectivity (56%), and network flexibility and agility (53%). 
    • Nearly half of respondents said they had reduced overall costs thanks to SD-WAN, and 36 percent reduced costs specifically for MPLS services.
Click here to download the full report.