SD-WAN Sales to Bounce Back, Surpass $3.2 Billion by 2024

Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) sales will exceed $3.2 billion in four years, according to a Dell’Oro Group report.

The newly unveiled report projects 168% SD-WAN sales growth from now to 2024. Although recent global events have hampered growth this year, Dell’Oro Group VP Shin Umeda gives an optimistic long-term outlook for the industry.

“SD-WAN offers a compelling reason for businesses to upgrade their WAN infrastructures, which is something we haven’t seen in many years,” Umeda said.

Dell’Oro’s Shin Umeda

Umeda said that COVID-19 lockdowns “created a major bump in the road” for deployment growth. He nevertheless said the industry looks set to regain and accelerate its momentum in the years to come.

“… the fundamental drivers for SD-WAN adoption have not changed, and may even be enhanced if work from home solutions can be incorporated,” he said.

Service Provider Trends

Umeda pointed to the technology’s popularity in the telecom industry — particularly with service providers. At the same time, the service providers that sell MPLS connections have faced efficiency issues, and cost and bandwidth requirements. Business customers moving to a more cloud-based, multimedia data landscape have challenged traditional WAN connections, Umeda said.

“This has led enterprise users to consider lower-cost business Internet connections that offer significantly more bandwidth than a MPLS connection,” he said.

The Dell’Oro Group report also concluded that software comprises the highest share of SD-WAN revenue. And that trend will continue over the next four years, according to the study.

Dell’Oro concluded in a March study that SD-WAN sales grew 64% in 2019. The increase moved the market over $1 billion. The same study also listed Cisco, Silver Peak, Versa Networks, VMWare and Fortinet as five vendors that lead the industry.