**Editor’s Note: MasterMinds is a biweekly feature in which we invite leading master agents to share information, insights and expert opinions about what’s going on in their agencies, the IT/telecom channel or the business community in general.**

Last week, Converged Network Services Group (CNSG) and CloudGenix announced a master agent agreement that adds CloudGenix’s SD-WAN solutions to CNSG’s extensive supplier portfolio. In making the announcement, CNSG emphasized that their partnership with CloudGenix further demonstrates their commitment to being the leading master agent distributor of SD-WAN solutions, as well as enabling partners to be successful in their evolution into selling the latest technologies.

Randy Friedberg, vice president of sales and marketing for CNSG, spent more than a year evaluating and building an SD-WAN portfolio comprised of the best of the best solution providers. And vetting SD-WAN vendors was no easy task for Friedberg. The field has grown increasingly crowded and competitive, tracking the explosive growth in the demand for SD-WAN. Research firm IDC predicts the SD-WAN market will grow at a CAGR of more than 90 percent, from its 2015 level of $225 million to $6 billion by 2020.

“CNSG is committed to working with only the most innovative technology suppliers to deliver the highest quality solutions for our partners and their customers,” said Friedberg. “Our alliance with CloudGenix reflects this mission and ensures that our product portfolio continues to align with customers’ needs for cost savings and unmatched application performance. CloudGenix uniquely offers provider-agnostic SD-WAN solutions and provides unmatched support for our partners.”{ad}

For Friedberg, the ultimate goal was giving CNSG partners access to top-quality SD-WAN products that offer their clients turnkey solutions for obtaining the benefits of SD-WAN: dynamic path selection, the ability to manage multiple connection transports, a simple WAN management interface, and support for VPNs and other third-party services. With most clients using between seven and nine cloud applications, SD-WAN can enable them to get the most out of their cloud products by enhancing application performance.

Friedberg sees the growth in the SD-WAN space as a natural progression in the communications market. “The cost of bandwidth continues to plummet, which is good for our customers, who need more of it.  However, it has a significant impact on our partner’s commissions and overall base,” he said. “ In addition to creating a new revenue stream, SD-WAN offers our partners a solution to help their clients get the most out of their networks and keep up with the demand evolving  technology. Cloud usage is booming, creating a demand for more bandwidth. And SD-WAN makes sure all those applications run at optimum effectiveness across all bandwidth transports.”

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