CP Expo Thunderdome: SD-WAN Not Replacing MPLS Anytime Soon
However, one panelist said MPLS replacement is his company's No. 1 use case.
Despite contrary opinions, SD-WAN isn’t replacing MPLS anytime soon and MPLS is actually still growing.
That’s according to most of a panel of top SD-WAN suppliers who participated in this week’s SD-WAN Thunderdome at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. Matthew Toth, founder/president of C3 Technology Advisors, moderated the panel.
The panelists included:
Matt Douglass, CBTS‘s senior director of solution engineering.
Bryn Norton, Lumen Technologies‘ vice president of IT solutions sales.
Mike Wood, Versa Networks‘ chief marketing officer.
Ryan Livesay, Aryaka‘s senior vice president of strategic sales and engineering.
SD-WAN vs. MPLS
Matthew Toth
Toth said he’s surprised that, when asked about SD-WAN versus MPLS, there are still supporters of MPLS.
“I thought that had died a death or was on life support,” he said. “But some of these guys think there are still scenarios where that could be useful.”
Many enterprises are resistant to change and have heavily invested in MPLS over the years.
“And it takes some years to roll out the technology itself,” added Toth. “So I think it’s going to be around for awhile. I think it’s going to be a slow, trickle down to nothing. But for some of those enterprise organizations that are resistant to change, it could be around for a bit.”
Norton said there are still customers who will buy MPLS and layer SD-WAN on top of it. Douglass also said it’s an “emotional decision,” and it’s not possible to convince everyone to move away from MPLS.
Wood said many service providers Versa works with made major investments in networks, and MPLS is working really well for them. Moreover, MPLS offers diversity.
“Believe it or not, MPLS is still growing,” he said. “There’s room for both. MPLS will continue for some time.”
However, Livesay said MPLS should die. None of Aryaka‘s customers uses MPLS.
“MPLS replacement is definitely our No. 1 use case,” he said.
Packet vs. Session Routing
Toth said he was also surprised when the panelists didn’t agree that packet-based routing is better than session-based routing.