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Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure

Published 23 September 2020 - ID G00465582 - 56 min read

By Jonathan Forest, Andrew Lerner, and 1 more

Digital transformation and accelerated cloud adoption are driving WAN edge infrastructure
changes for infrastructure and operations leaders responsible for networking. Consequently, I&O
leaders must select SD-WAN vendors that address the evolving requirements to connect end
users to applications.

Strategic Planning Assumptions

By 2023, to deliver flexible, cost-effective scalable bandwidth, 30% of enterprise locations will have
only internet WAN connectivity, compared with approximately 15% in 2020.

By 2024, more than 60% of software-defined, wide-area network (SD-WAN) customers will have
implemented a secure access service edge (SASE) architecture, compared with about 35% in 2020.

By 2024, to enhance agility and support for cloud applications, 60% of enterprises will have
implemented SD-WAN, compared with about 30% in 2020.

By 2024, 20% of SD-WAN centralized configuration and troubleshooting will be touchless via an
artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, compared with none in 2020.

Market Definition/Description
Gartner defines the wide-area network (WAN) edge infrastructure market as WAN edge products that
provide network connectivity from distributed enterprise locations to access resources in private and
public data centers, as well as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). It
is typically procured by senior networking leaders in the infrastructure and operations (I&O)
organization and increasingly senior security leaders. This market is evolving from traditional branch
routers — often called “customer edge routers” in Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
implementations — used to connect branch locations to the data center to a more decentralized
architecture with cloud workloads. It is undergoing dramatic change, driven by the needs of digital
business transformation and the demands of line of business (LOB) managers.

WAN edge infrastructure functionality can exist on or off the enterprise premises via physical or
virtual appliances and is typically sourced from network equipment providers (and their channels),
network service providers (NSPs) or managed network service (MNS) providers. WAN edge
infrastructure must be agnostic to the underlying network transport provider and services.

The market for branch office WAN edge functionality continues to rapidly shift from dedicated
routing, security and WAN optimization appliances to feature-rich SD-WAN. SD-WAN is replacing
traditional branch routers with application aware path selection among multiple links, centralized
orchestration and native security, as well as application performance optimization functions.
Consequently, it includes incumbent and emerging vendors from multiple markets (i.e., routing,
security, WAN optimization and SD-WAN), each of which brings its own differentiators and
limitations.

Common attributes of SD-WAN solutions are described in the section that follows.

Core Functionality
■ Licensed software:

■ Routing

■ Application recognition

■ Path selection

■ Virtual private network (VPN) and Layer 4 firewall

■ Form factors:

■ Virtual and/or physical

■ Edge and headend

■ Orchestrator (on-premises or in the cloud):

■ Configuration

■ Management

■ Visibility

Optional Functionality
■ Native advanced security

■ Cloud gateways
■ Application performance optimization

In the North American market, about 60% of WAN deployments have historically been do-it-yourself
(DIY). In much of the rest of the world, a managed service approach is favored. In general, we see a
trend toward more managed services, even though SD-WAN makes managing the WAN easier. At the
same time, this introduces new challenges, with the greater use of internet transport. Large global
organizations may prefer a DIY or managed approach, whereas midsize organizations are more likely
to favor managed services. Consequently, many companies now compare DIY and managed service
options as part of the evaluation process.

Increasingly, vendors are differentiating their SD-WAN solutions in the following categories:

■ Ease of use

■ Application performance optimization — including WAN optimization, voice optimization, SaaS

optimization and ensuring quality of experience (QoE)

■ Integration of network and security (SASE)

■ Pricing and pricing models

■ Cloud onramp for simpler connectivity to cloud workloads

■ AI/machine learning (ML)-assisted for troubleshooting

■ Support for 5G, Long Term Evolution (LTE) and other cellular wireless use cases

■ Orchestration and integration with third-party solutions

Magic Quadrant
Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure
Source: Gartner (September 2020)

Vendor Strengths and Cautions

Barracuda
Barracuda is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering is the CloudGen WAN, which includes
WAN edge devices, Firewall Control Center, Firewall Insights and Secure Connector. Barracuda is
based in California, U.S. Gartner estimates that it has more than 20,000 WAN edge — mainly next-
generation firewall (NGFW) — customers. It operates primarily in North America and Europe focused
on midsize enterprise customers, with a focus on security. We expect Barracuda to make future
investments in CloudGen WAN for Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), and to add remote
security capabilities.

Strengths
■ Barracuda includes comprehensive security capabilities with its broader SD-WAN offering.

■ Based on Gartner’s analysis, Barracuda has one of the more price-competitive offerings on the
market.

■ Barracuda recently announced a cloud-native solution for its CloudGen WAN in Azure.

Cautions
■ Barracuda has low market visibility, based on searches on gartner.com, client inquiries and social
media analyses of conversations.

■ Based on our assessment, Barracuda’s graphical user interface (GUI) is one of the more
complicated and difficult to use, compared with others in this research.

■ Barracuda doesn’t have as much experience as other vendors in this research, with more-
complicated networks that are typical of the larger enterprise segment.

Cisco
Cisco is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. It has one offering branded as Cisco SD-WAN powered by
Viptela, which includes Viptela OS or IOS XE software with vManage orchestration. The other is Cisco
SD-WAN, powered by Meraki, which includes MX appliances and software with orchestration. Cisco
Umbrella can optionally be deployed for enhanced cloud security capabilities. Cisco is based in
California, U.S., and Gartner estimates it has more than 30,000 SD-WAN customers. Its operations
are global, with clients across all verticals and sizes. We expect Cisco to make future investments in
enhancing security capabilities, improving cloud visibility and using ML to optimize performance.

Strengths
■ Cisco has a large installed base and channels to markets worldwide, which gives it a strong
capability to reach customers and leads to long-term market viability.

■ Cisco has a solid roadmap to deliver increasing security capabilities in an integrated fashion,
driving toward a SASE architecture.

■ Cisco has feature breadth and depth that serve nearly all customer usage scenarios and
geographies.
Cautions
■ Cisco’s SD-WAN portfolio includes separate pieces, which don’t have full integration at the
software or hardware layer and can lead to limited investment protection as needs change, or a
requirement to manage multiple platforms develops.

■ Based on client inquiry, Cisco customers report nearly double the rate of concerns regarding
product and pricing, compared with other vendors.

■ There is limited adoption of IOS-XE-based, SD-WAN deployments at scale for networks with more
than 100 sites, compared with other vendors in this research.

Citrix
Citrix is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering is Citrix’s SD-WAN, which includes physical,
virtual appliances and Cloud Direct service managed via the Citrix SD-WAN Orchestrator. Citrix is
based in Florida, U.S., and Gartner estimates that it has more than 1,000 WAN edge customers. Citrix
is sold globally across most vertical and company sizes. We expect Citrix to make future investments
in SASE, mutlicloud orchestration and remote-user SD-WAN with wireless connectivity.

Strengths

■ Citrix SD-WAN has a comprehensive solution that includes solid SD-WAN, application performance
optimization, cloud features and security.

■ Citrix SD-WAN is managed via the same user interface (UI) as other Citrix products, such as Citrix
Workspace, which can simplify operations for existing Citrix customers.

■ Citrix is expanding its cloud orchestration capabilities enabling simpler user access to cloud
workloads.

Cautions

■ Gartner clients don’t ask about Citrix as often as other vendors in this research.

■ Citrix has limited breadth of traditional, go-to-market channels, especially with carriers.

■ Many enterprises don’t see Citrix as a network vendor, which may limit its growth in the market.

Cradlepoint
Cradlepoint is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering is the NetCloud service for Branch
which can be used with its E, CR and AER physical routers and Cloud Virtual Router (CVR) with
NetCloud Perimeter. Cradlepoint is based in Idaho, U.S., and Gartner estimates it has more than 8,000
WAN edge customers. Its operations are focused in North America, with limited sales and channels
in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), as well as the Asia/Pacific (APAC) region, and a
concentration on wireless WAN use cases in specific verticals. We expect Cradlepoint to make future
investments in 5G, cloud integration and improved cellular performance.

Strengths
■ The vendor has strong, vertically focused capabilities and a roadmap to maintain solid capabilities
in these areas. This includes specific product customizations for public safety and educational
verticals.

■ Cradlepoint has proven ability to support large-scale customers beyond 1,000 remote locations.

■ Cradlepoint has platforms that align well with small footprint locations, including wireless
interfaces, form factors and pricing/licensing.

Cautions
■ Cradlepoint has limited SD-WAN path selection capabilities, with fewer apps recognized and no
first packet identification.

■ The vendor’s roadmap is aligned with customers relying on wireless as a primary WAN
connectivity, which may not align with the broader enterprise market and limits it to certain niche
use cases.

■ Cradlepoint has limited cloud features, application performance optimization and deployment
flexibility, which restricts its target market.

FatPipe Networks
FatPipe Networks is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering is its MPVPN flagship
platform, which includes WAN edge appliances and orchestration. FatPipe is based in Utah, U.S., and
Gartner estimates it has more than 2,000 WAN edge customers. It focuses primarily on the U.S.
market, with an increasing presence in APAC and Latin America (LATAM), and its clients tend to be
midsize enterprises with application performance optimization needs. We expect FatPipe to make
future investments in channels and alliances to expand its reach, as well as new solutions focused
on work from home use cases and analytics.

Strengths

■ FatPipe has a long background of application performance optimization, which it brings to its SD-
WAN offering.

■ The vendor has strong path selection capabilities for routing traffic between multiple links, which
supports a better user experience.
■ It offers solid deployment flexibility, including virtual network function (VNF), virtual machine (VM)
and universal customer premises equipment (uCPE), and it is even deployable as bare metal.

Cautions

■ FatPipe has limited experience in deploying large-scale WANs, with low numbers of customers
having more than 100 sites relative to other vendors assessed.

■ FatPipe has low visibility in the market based on client inquiry, searches on gartner.com and
analysis of social media conversations.

■ FatPipe lacks cloud capability relative to other vendors, having limited integration with cloud
networks of key public cloud infrastructure providers.

Fortinet
Fortinet is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering is the Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, which
includes FortiGate hardware and virtual appliances with accompanying networking and security
(FortiGuard) software managed by the orchestrator in FortiManager. Fortinet is based in California,
U.S., and Gartner estimates it has 30,000 WAN edge customers and more than 8,000 SD-WAN
customers. Its operations are global, and it addresses clients of all sizes in retail, healthcare,
manufacturing, finance and education. We expect Fortinet to make future investments in SASE,
AI/ML for troubleshooting SD-branch/SD-WAN, and cloud/multicloud orchestration.

Strengths

■ Fortinet has one of the most capable security solutions in this research, and, when combined with
other SD-WAN functionality, it yields a comprehensive offering.

■ The vendor continues to improve its market presence by winning deals and expanding its go-to-
market channel, especially with service providers.

■ Fortinet’s continued investments in application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) results in a

competitive price point, when leveraging the full suite of on-premises SD-WAN features.

Cautions
■ Fortinet is viewed by the market as primarily a security vendor.

■ Fortinet doesn’t have as much experience in complex architectures, compared with other vendors
in this research.

■ Fortinet has been late to market with cloud security, resulting in a focus primarily on branch
security.
HPE (Aruba)
Aruba is positioned as a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering is Aruba SD-Branch, which
includes the Aruba Central Cloud Platform, Aruba Branch/Headend Gateways, Aruba Virtual
Gateways, ClearPass Policy Manager and ClearPass Device Insight. Aruba is based in California, U.S.,
and Gartner estimates it has about 450 SD-WAN customers. Its worldwide operations focus on
distributed enterprise ranging from large enterprise to smaller networks, with an emphasis on SD-
Branch implementations. We expect Aruba to make future investments in its Intelligent Edge strategy,
small form factors for teleworkers and its HPE GreenLake service, which offers new consumption
models.

Strengths
■ Aruba’s SD-Branch offering aligns well to a single operational model for LAN, WLAN, WAN, and
security across campus and branches.

■ Gartner believes Aruba has the potential to change the WAN conversation with the operational
agility and flexibility of its Aruba ESP and HPE Greenlake offerings.

■ The vendor scores above average in customer experience, compared with other vendors in this
research.

Cautions
■ Aruba’s application failover time, application performance optimization and native integrated
security features aren’t as strong as those of some other vendors in this research.

■ Aruba has been a late entrant to the WAN edge market, which has affected its ability to execute
and grow.

■ The vendor is not as well-known in the WAN domain as it is in the LAN/WLAN and data center
domains.

Note: As of 13 July 2020, HPE announced its intention to acquire Silver Peak. Gartner will provide
additional insight and research to clients, as more details become available. Reflection of this
acquisition is excluded from this research, because it occurred after the cutoff date for the analysis.

Huawei
Huawei is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering includes CloudWAN, NetEngine series
routers and HiSecEngine USG series gateways. Huawei is based in Shenzhen, China, and Gartner
estimates it has about 60,000 WAN edge customers and approximately 7,000 SD-WAN customers. It
operates globally across all verticals and company sizes with a strong focus in APAC, specifically in
China, but also in LATAM and EMEA, with very little presence in North America. We expect Huawei to
make future investments in 5G and AI/ML capabilities for its WAN edge offerings.
Strengths
■ Huawei has a well-balanced WAN edge product with expanding 5G capabilities to support various
industry use cases.

■ Huawei’s offering is competitively priced, compared with other vendors in this research.

■ Huawei’s products are proved to scale to many thousands of branches, and it has a focused
industry vertical strategy to target large communications service providers (CSPs), financial
institutions and retail customers.

Cautions

■ Lack of access to the U.S. — and, to a lesser extent, some Western European markets — limits
Huawei’s relevance to some enterprise customers.

■ It has geographic limitations providing cloud-based orchestration and has been late in addressing
key public cloud services integration requirements globally.

■ Huawei does not have a differentiated marketing strategy, which limits its competitive ability
versus key market leaders.

Juniper Networks
Juniper is a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering is the Juniper SD-WAN, which includes its
SRX edge appliances with Contrail Service Orchestration and an increasing focus on the Mist Marvis
AI/ML engine to simplify Day 2 operations. Juniper is based in California, U.S., and Gartner estimates
it has about 18,000 WAN edge customers and more than 3,000 SD-WAN customers. It operates
globally, primarily through service providers, and addresses customers of all sizes and verticals. We
expect Juniper to make future investments in intelligent, assistant-based autoconfiguration and
assurance services for the proactive remedy and mitigation of WAN issues.

Strengths

■ Its self-driving and WAN assurance capabilities for WAN edge are well-aligned to growing
customer needs, and Juniper has a differentiated vision in this area that may change the market
dynamics.

■ Juniper has a comprehensive solution, including solid capabilities with SD-WAN, operations, and
deployment flexibility, with strong security features.

■ Juniper has a solid SD-branch solution that appeals to small footprint locations.

Cautions

■ Juniper lacks cloud feature capabilities to simplify branch sites connecting to cloud workloads.
■ Its solutions have limited application performance optimization capabilities.

■ Juniper has had a poor track record in market execution, has suffered from a lack of market
visibility and has shown limited sales execution, leading mostly through MNS providers.

Nuage Networks
Nuage Networks is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering is Nuage’s Virtualized Network
Services (VNS), which includes X series and E series gateways managed by the Nuage Networks
Virtualized Services Platform (VSP) controller. Nuage is based in California, U.S., and is a division of
publicly traded Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland. Gartner estimates that it has approximately 2,000
enterprise WAN edge customers. It operates globally and primarily through carrier channels
addressing customers of all sizes and all verticals. We expect Nuage to make future investments in
SD-LAN and end-user access management, 5G access, and multicloud connectivity and
management.

Strengths
■ Nuage’s SD-WAN products are available through service provider partners of all sizes globally.

■ Nuage’s GUI provides the necessary analytics in a user-friendly way for enterprises.

■ Nuage has solid virtual and physical form factor deployment flexibility, enabling support for
various environments.

Cautions

■ Although Nuage has tried to expand its channel, it still relies on MNS providers, with less focus on
DIY customers.

■ Nuage has limited application performance optimization capabilities, with no SaaS optimization
functionality.

■ Nuage has low visibility in the market (the vendor’s name is rarely discussed by Gartner clients); it
has low search on gartner.com and limited share of voice in online conversations.

Palo Alto Networks (CloudGenix)

Palo Alto Networks is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering is the CloudGenix SD-WAN with
ION edge appliances and optional Prisma Access for integrated advanced security. Palo Alto
Networks acquired CloudGenix during the past year. Palo Alto Networks is based in California, U.S.,
and Gartner estimates that it has more than 1,000 SD-WAN customers. It operates globally and
addresses most verticals across any size. We expect Palo Alto Networks to make future investments
in new form factors, SD-branch, SASE, automation and enhanced visibility.
Strengths

■ With Palo Alto Networks’ acquisition of CloudGenix, the vendor has one of the more complete
SASE offerings when fully integrated.

■ The vendor has one of the highest customer experience ratings of any vendor in this research.

■ Palo Alto Networks has one of the best visualization capabilities, compared with other vendors in
this research.

Cautions

■ Palo Alto Networks’ legacy-branch-only (not the CloudGenix offering) solution is limited in SD-WAN
functionality. As a result, Palo Alto Networks is limited where customers want a comprehensive
SD-WAN solution with integrated security at the branch.

■ The vendor has limited capabilities in terms of application performance optimization, specifically
with WAN optimization.

■ Palo Alto Networks has limited capabilities with small, simple, all-in-one form factors, which
means there are certain verticals, such as retail, where they aren’t as competitive.

Peplink
Peplink is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Its offering includes Balance and Max ruggedized
appliances along with the InControl 2 management system. Peplink is based in Hong Kong, and
Gartner estimates it has more than 10,000 WAN edge customers. It operates mainly in North
America, but has a growing channel of value-added resellers (VARs) and MSPs in EMEA and APAC
and focuses on wireless WAN customers with industry-specific niche use cases, such as
transportation, public safety and maritime. We expect Peplink to make future investments in 5G
wireless-focused and industry-specific products.

Strengths
■ It has a solid, LTE/5G, wireless-focused SD-WAN offering, with ruggedized products that
complement its suitability to industry use cases that call for such solutions.

■ Peplink has a targeted focus on small or midsize businesses (SMBs), as well as specialized used
cases among industry segments, including transportation, public safety and broadcasting.

■ It scores above average in customer experience, with good customer rating indicated by scores
from Gartner Peer Insights.

Cautions
■ Its products lack capabilities in many areas, including security and application performance
management with basic SD-WAN capabilities, and limited application recognition and failover
criteria.

■ Their management interface provides limited analytical insights and lacks automation, with the
GUI requiring a suboptimal workflow.

■ Peplink’s marketing, sales and product innovation plans are incremental only, and lack attention to
broader-based industry enterprise requirements.

Riverbed
Riverbed is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. It has two offerings. The primary one is
SteelConnect EX (with integrated Versa VOS, which is based on a partnership with Versa Networks).
It includes the edge appliance hardware and orchestrator, and SteelConnect CX. Riverbed is based in
California, U.S., and Gartner estimates that it has more than 3,000 SD-WAN customers. It operates
globally and addresses networks of all sizes and verticals. We expect Riverbed to make future
investments in more security capabilities, cloud delivery models, client/laptop-based network access
and performance and SaaS acceleration as a service.

Strengths

■ The vendor has delivered the SteelConnect EX product to the market, which provides a fully
functional and comprehensive SD-WAN offering.

■ Riverbed’s sizable customer base provides natural candidates for upgrade to the SteelConnect EX
product.

■ Riverbed offers a broad set of functionality beyond SD-WAN. These include WAN optimization,
network performance monitoring and diagnostic (NPMD), and client-based acceleration that can
improve performance for work-from-anywhere users and SaaS acceleration offered as a service.

Cautions
■ Riverbed OEMs the Versa VOS product, which limits Riverbed’s control of the product
development in terms of scope and timing.

■ Riverbed has lost traction in its go-to-market channels, due to its product challenges in recent
years.

■ Based on client inquiry and Peer Insights data, Riverbed’s customer experience is lower than other
vendors in this research.

Silver Peak
Silver Peak is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its products include the Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN
Edge Platform, which is composed of the Unity Orchestrator, EdgeConnect appliances, and an
optional Unity Boost feature that enables WAN optimization. Silver Peak is based in California, U.S.,
and Gartner estimates that it has about 2,000 SD-WAN customers. It operates primarily in North
America, with a limited sales/channel in EMEA and APAC and an increasing focus on large-enterprise
customers across multiple verticals beyond its traditional midmarket enterprise customer base. We
expect Silver Peak to make future investments in enhancing analytics to improve troubleshooting,
visibility and security, as well as orchestrate with third-party security solutions.

Note: As of 13 July 2020, HPE announced its intention to acquire Silver Peak. Gartner will provide
additional insight and research to clients as more details become available. Reflection of this
acquisition is excluded from this research, because it occurred after the cutoff date for the analysis.

Strengths
■ The vendor has strong depth and breadth of optimization features, including WAN optimization,
SaaS acceleration and voice optimization.

■ The vendor has strong SD-WAN path selection and application recognition capabilities and has
demonstrated the ability to win in competitive deals.

■ The vendor’s roadmap to delivering increasing levels of analytics and enhanced security
capabilities is aligned with customer needs and should improve performance, security and
troubleshooting.

Cautions

■ The vendor has limited native security capabilities, compared with some other vendors in this
research. This can result in customers needing to acquire, manage and integrate additional
security suppliers.

■ Based on inquiry, customer experience has declined during the past 12 months. Overall, the
vendor’s customer experience is in the average range, compared with other vendors, based on
Peer Insights and inquiries.

■ The vendor has a limited number of customers that have deployed more than 1,000 sites, so it
hasn’t appealed to large-enterprise networks by site count.

Teldat
Teldat is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Its primary SD-WAN product is the Teldat M8Smart,
along with Cloud Net Manager, CNM Provisioner, CNM Controller and CNM Visualizer. Teldat is based
in Madrid, Spain, and Nuremberg, Germany. Gartner estimates that it has more than 2,000 WAN edge
customers. It operates primarily in Western Europe and LATAM and delivers products primarily
through carriers and MSPs with a focus on the midsize enterprise (MSE) market. We expect Teldat to
continue investing in SASE and artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps).

Strengths

■ Teldat has a focused presence in Europe and LATAM, where more than 95% of its customers are
headquartered.

■ Teldat has successfully deployed large-scale WANs of more than 1,000 locations, but is
increasingly focused on smaller networks.

■ Teldat’s pricing is among the most competitive, when compared with the vendors in this research.

Cautions
■ Teldat has limited expertise with DIY enterprises, because it focuses heavily on selling through
carrier and MSP partnerships in Europe and LATAM.

■ Teldat has limited capabilities in application performance optimization, cloud features and
security features.

■ Teldat has low visibility in the market, based on client inquiry, searches on gartner.com and
analysis of social media conversations.

Versa Networks
Versa Networks is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. It has two offerings, with the primary one being
the full-featured VOS (formerly FlexVNF), which can be delivered on the Versa branch Cloud Services
Gateways (CSG) or third-party hardware, along with the Versa Director and Versa Analytics. The
second offering is Versa Titan, which is a simpler, cloud-based solution with limited native features.
Versa is based in California, U.S., and Gartner estimates that it has more than 5,000 WAN edge
customers. It operates globally and addresses clients of all sizes and verticals, primarily through
service providers. We expect Versa to make future investments in SASE, multicloud fabric and
campus SD-LAN.

Strengths
■ Versa VOS offers a comprehensive solution with strong capabilities with networking, cloud access
integrations and security (SASE).

■ Versa’s growth has outpaced the market, demonstrating its expanding go-to-market strategy and
validating its product capabilities.

■ Versa’s Titan service offers a simplified solution for MSEs looking for an easier user experience.
Cautions
■ Versa’s broad roadmap introduces risk of it becoming spread too thin and defocused, which could
affect code quality and customer support.

■ According to some Gartner clients (end users and channel partners), Versa VOS remains a
complicated product to operate. As a result, it has limited adoption in some cases (e.g., DIY).

■ Versa is a smaller vendor, compared with other leading vendors in this space, especially after
recently completed and announced merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. This may limit the
vendor’s ability to grow and invest in the future.

VMware
VMware is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its product is branded as VMware SD-WAN powered by
VeloCloud, which primarily includes SD-WAN edge (VCE) appliances, gateways (VCG) and an SD-
WAN orchestrator (VCO). VMware is based in California, U.S., and Gartner estimates it has more than
9,000 SD-WAN customers. Its operations are geographically diversified on a global basis, with clients
across all verticals and sizes. We expect VMware to make future investments in enhancing its SASE
security capabilities, multicloud onramp, edge compute and AI/ML for improved analytics with the
integration of Nyansa.

Strengths
■ VMware has solid products, a sizable installed base of SD-WAN customers and a massive global
channel, with strong financial resources, indicating strong future market viability.

■ VMware has strong proven ability to support large-scale customers at 1,000 branches and more.

■ We assess the vendor’s roadmap to deliver increasing amounts of security and analytics as
strongly aligned with customer needs.

Cautions

■ The vendor has limited native security capabilities, compared with some other vendors in this
research. This can result in customers having to acquire, manage and integrate additional security
suppliers.

■ The vendor’s VCO management platform has several optional separate pieces, including VRNI and
Nyansa, which can increase complexity and costs.

■ VMware’s customer experience is in the average range for vendors assessed in this research.

Vendors Added and Dropped

We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants as markets change. As a result of
these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant may change over time. A vendor’s
appearance in a Magic Quadrant one year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we
have changed our opinion of that vendor. It may reflect a change in the market and, therefore,
changed evaluation criteria, or of a change of focus by that vendor.

Added
Palo Alto Networks has been added because it acquired CloudGenix.

Dropped
Aryaka was dropped because it failed to meet the inclusion criteria, based on our assessment and
data provided by the vendor.

CloudGenix was dropped because it was acquired by Palo Alto Networks.

Oracle was dropped because it failed to meet the inclusion criteria, based on our assessment and
data provided by the vendor.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

To qualify for inclusion, vendors need to show relevance to Gartner clients by:

■ Providing hardware and software that addresses the enterprise WAN edge requirements outlined
in the Market Definition/Description section. Alternatively, they may address this need by using in-
house-developed hardware/software to deliver as a managed service.

■ Producing and releasing enterprise WAN edge networking products for general availability as of 15
June 2020. All components must be publicly available, be shipping and be included on the
vendors’ published price list as of this date. Products shipping after this date, and any publicly
available marketing information may only have an influence on the Completeness of Vision axis.

■ Providing commercial support and maintenance for their enterprise WAN edge products (24/7) to
support deployments on multiple continents. This includes hardware/software support, access to
software upgrades, and troubleshooting and technical assistance.

Product Capabilities
Vendors must have generally available (GA) products that support all of the following capabilities.
These capabilities must be supported natively on branch CPE:

■ The ability to function as/replace the branch office router/CPE (including BGP, OSPF, support hub
and spoke, mesh, and partial mesh topologies for a minimum of a 250-site network) with traffic
shaping and/or quality of service (QoS)
■ Centralized management for devices (with GUI), including reporting and configuration changes,
and software upgrades

■ Zero-touch configuration for branch devices

■ VPN (Advanced Encryption Standard [AES] 256-bit encryption) and NGFW or Layer 4 firewall with
the ability to redirect and orchestrate with a secure web gateway (SWG)

■ Dynamic traffic steering based on business or application policy (not limited to only DiffServ Code
Point [DSCP]/ports, IPs/circuits or 5tuple) that responds to network conditions (changes in packet
loss, latency, jitter, etc.) in an active/active configuration

■ At least 200 well-known application profiles included (autodiscovered)

■ Application visibility identifying specific traffic that traverses the WAN

■ Software (ability to operate as a VNF at the branch or in the network and to be hosted in at least
one cloud provider, such as AWS) and hardware form factors

Business/Financial Performance
Vendors must show relevance to Gartner’s enterprise clients by meeting the following with their WAN
edge infrastructure solution(s) that meet the product capabilities inclusion criteria (from above):

■ Demonstrate baseline scalability by servicing at least five customers with active support contracts
that have at least 100 sites each.

■ Show relevance to Gartner’s enterprise clients on a global basis with at least one of the two below
criteria with product or products that fulfill the product inclusion criteria:

■ At least 50 WAN edge infrastructure customers with 10 or more production sites each,
headquartered in two or more geographic regions (North America, South America, EMEA or
APAC) under active support contracts. This means 50 customers with headquarters in one
region and another 50 customers with headquarters in a different region.

■ At least 20 WAN edge infrastructure customers with 10 or more production sites each,
headquartered in three or more geographic regions (North America, South America, EMEA or
APAC) under active support contracts. This means 20 customers each with headquarters in
three different regions, for a total of at least 60 customers.

■ Meet at least one of the four criteria below with WAN edge infrastructure products that fulfill the
product inclusion criteria:
 ■ Total WAN edge infrastructure revenue of at least $30 million in the 12 months ending March
31, 2020*

■ Total WAN edge infrastructure revenue of $20 million in the 12 months ending March 31, 2020,
with at least a 100% growth rate during the previous 12 months

■ At least 30,000 WAN edge infrastructure sites deployed and under active support contracts

■ At least 500 WAN edge infrastructure customers under active support contracts with 10 or more
sites deployed each

* Gartner leverages our published market estimates.

Exclusion Criteria
We exclude NSPs, non-NSPs or other providers/vendors that do not own a substantial native
capability included in their WAN edge technologies.

Evaluation Criteria
Ability to Execute
Product/Service: Core goods and services that compete in and/or serve the defined market. This
includes current product and service capabilities, quality, feature sets and skills. This can be offered
natively or through OEM agreements/partnerships, as defined in the Market Definition and detailed in
the subcriteria.

Evaluates vendors by looking at their overall WAN edge networking portfolios, including all hardware
and software aspects of WAN edge networking. This includes physical and virtual customer
premises equipment (CPE), controllers, gateways, and the relevant automation, management and
orchestration of those components. We consider the breadth and depth of WAN edge functions that
the vendor offers that address common use cases enterprise customers have. We consider product
and architectural migration strategies, and the ability to address customers’ multicloud deployment
requirements, application performance, security, traffic steering and scalability. We focus on the
vendor’s flagship enterprise offering and/or the products they lead with for enterprise accounts.

Overall Viability: Viability includes an assessment of the organization’s overall financial health, as
well as the financial and practical success of the business unit. Views the likelihood of the
organization to continue to offer and invest in the product, as well as the product position in the
current portfolio.

Sales Execution/Pricing: The organization’s capabilities in all sales activities and the structure that
supports them. This includes sales/channel depth/breadth, pricing and pricing models, estimated
market share and estimated growth.
Evaluates sales effectiveness and go-to-market activities of the vendor and its channels. It also
includes analysis of how the vendor interacts with its customers and prospects. The second aspect
of this criterion includes our evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of the solutions for purchase and
support over their useful life, and the ability to recognize and position the most appropriate solution
in specific sales situations.

Market Responsiveness and Track Record: Ability to respond quickly, change direction, be flexible
and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve
and market dynamics change. This criterion also considers the vendor’s history of responsiveness to
changing market demands. This includes how well the vendors offering matches buyer’s
requirements at the time of purchase.

We assess the vendor’s track record in delivering new capabilities when the market needs them in
terms of timing and scope. This criterion also considers the vendor’s history of responsiveness in
terms of changing market demands and addressing limitations. This evaluation is not limited to
products as it involves pricing/licensing as well.

Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the
organization’s message in order to influence the market, promote the brand, increase awareness of
products and establish a positive identification in the minds of customers. This “mind share” can be
driven by a combination of publicity, promotional, thought leadership, social media, referrals and
sales activities.

Focuses on how the vendor is perceived in the market, and how well its marketing programs are
recognized. For WAN edge infrastructure, the evaluation focuses on how well the vendor is able to
influence and shape perception in the market through marketing activities and thought leadership
that drives awareness. An additional indicator for this criterion is how often Gartner clients inquire
about a specific vendor in terms of capabilities/reputation or in a shortlist evaluation process.

Customer Experience: Products and services and/or programs that enable customers to achieve
anticipated results with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes quality supplier/buyer
interactions technical support, or account support with the vendor. This may also include ancillary
tools, customer support programs, availability of user groups and service-level agreements (SLAs).

Looks at all aspects of the customer experience (including pricing, setup, day-to-day production and
support), with a heavier weighting on postsales service and support activities. This includes
customer’s experience with the vendor’s WAN edge products and services used in its production
environments. This includes initial provisioning, as well as the day-to-day operation and management
of WANs, and overall interaction with the vendor. It also includes the ability to upgrade software and
work with technical support to solve problems. Hardware and software quality and how existing
customers describe their experience with the vendors’ products are evaluated.

Table 1: Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria

 Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Product or Service High

Overall Viability High

Sales Execution/Pricing Medium

Market Responsiveness/Record Medium

Marketing Execution Medium

Customer Experience High

Operations Not Rated

Source: Gartner (September 2020)

Completeness of Vision
Market Understanding: Ability to understand customer needs and translate them into products and
services. Vendors that show a clear vision of their market — listen, understand customer demands,
and can shape or enhance market changes with their added vision.

Assesses the vendor’s ability to look at future needs and drive new ideas into product roadmaps and
offerings, taking into account market needs, competitor strengths/weaknesses and vendor core
competencies. In this market, we look at the vendor’s ability to address the challenges associated
with distributed branch office locations. This may involve simplified central management, large-scale
deployments, latency/bandwidth challenges, automation, multicloud networking and changing
application deployment scenarios. This includes on-premises, IaaS/PaaS, and SaaS architectures;
security; openness; choice; and investment protection.

Marketing Strategy: Clear, differentiated messaging consistently communicated internally,

externalized through social media, advertising, customer programs and positioning statements.

Evaluates the ability of the vendor to influence the market through its messaging and marketing
campaigns. Furthermore, this includes the extent to which the vendor articulates a clear, consistent,
relevant and differentiated message that is aligned with end-user needs and with the ability to drive
market demand. We look for consistent communication throughout the organization and through its
website, advertising, customer programs and positioning statements that align with the product
strategy.
Sales Strategy: A sound strategy for selling that uses the appropriate networks including direct and
indirect sales marketing, service, and communication. Partners that extend the scope and depth of
market reach, expertise, technologies, services and their customer base.

Evaluates the vendor’s use of direct and indirect sales to extend the scope and depth of its market
reach. Furthermore, this includes the extent to which the vendor articulates a clear, consistent and
differentiated sales strategy that engages with defined customer profiles. This includes development
of effective go-to-market strategies, alliances and partnerships leveraging VARs, system integrators
(SIs), master agents, NSPs, MSPs and OEM resellers, as appropriate. In addition, this includes how
the vendor exploits new business models that are emerging due to market and technology
transitions.

Offering (Product) Strategy: An approach to product development and delivery that emphasizes
market differentiation, functionality, methodology and features as they map to current and future
requirements.

Evaluates the vendor’s product roadmap around existing and future WAN edge functions. This
includes not just raw functions, but the vendor’s overall architecture across the portfolio, the
uniqueness of the capabilities and value to the end customer. We evaluate product strategy in terms
of capabilities such as simplicity, automation, cloud connectivity, self-healing, performance and
security.

Vertical/Industry Strategy: The strategy to direct resources (sales, product and development); skills;
and products to meet the specific needs of individual market segments, including verticals.

Measures the vendor’s ability to address the unique requirements of particular verticals/industries
and to employ the associated sales channels to build a sustainable business advantage.

Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital
for investment, consolidation, defensive or preemptive purposes. The plans to bring future
differentiated capabilities to market that will enhance the vendor’s ability to interact with customers
and drive business.

Measures the vendor’s ability to address emerging WAN edge requirements, and/or increasing value
to enterprise customers. We look at how the vendor invests in new capabilities to move its business
and the market forward, with a focus on technologies that are differentiated, unique and offer high
value to the enterprise buyer as well as new business/operating models. Specific examples include
application centricity, intent-driven networking, security, cloud access, improved management and
automation, as well as nonproduct innovations, such as consumption-based pricing and hybrid
offerings that bundle product and managed services.

A key attribute in the WAN edge market is vendor innovation in areas that meet emerging enterprise
market requirements around the simplified management of hybrid WAN architectures and,
increasingly, all internet architectures. Innovation is not limited to products, because it can cover
multiple aspects of the vendor’s strategy that delivers new capabilities that uniquely differentiates it
in the marketplace.

Geographic Strategy: The vendor’s strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the
specific needs of geographies outside the “home” or native geography, either directly or through
partners, channels and subsidiaries, as appropriate for that geography, and the ability to grow or
maintain the market.

It measures the vendor’s ability to address any unique product requirements of particular
geographies and to use the associated messaging and partnerships, as well as sales channels to
build a sustainable business advantage.

Table 2: Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Market Understanding Medium

Marketing Strategy Low

Sales Strategy Medium

Offering (Product) Strategy High

Business Model Not Rated

Vertical/Industry Strategy Low

Innovation High

Geographic Strategy Low

Source: Gartner (September 2020)

Quadrant Descriptions
Leaders
A Leader has demonstrated a sustained ability to address changing requirements for enterprise WAN
edge. A Leader can drive, shape and transform the market, as well as maintain strong relationships
with its channels and customers.

Challengers
A Challenger has demonstrated sustained execution in the marketplace, and has clear, long-term
viability in the market. However, a Challenger has not shown the ability to drive, shape and transform
the market.

Visionaries
A Visionary has innovated in some key areas of WAN edge, such as automation, SD-branch, AI/ML,
SASE, operational efficiency and cost reductions. Visionaries often help transform the market, from
driving new ideas, including new business models, to solving enterprise challenges. Although
Visionaries often transform the market, they typically lack market share, global coverage and/or
complete product capabilities.

Niche Players
A Niche Player has a complete or near-complete product offering, but has limitations, such as
geographic reach or vertical market focus. A Niche Player has a viable product offering, but has not
shown the ability to transform the market or maintain sustained execution.

Context
Market Forecast
The WAN edge market (which comprises SD-WAN, plus traditional branch routers) is forecast to
generate a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of −3.1% in end-user spending from 2017 through
2024. This is the result of the robust growth of SD-WAN (+18.0% CAGR) and the decline of traditional
branch office routers (−24.9% CAGR). Hence, the major focus in this research is on SD-WAN
solutions. The decline is due to the lower average selling price of SD-WAN hardware and software.

Gartner expects continued functional consolidation of WAN edge functions into a single device to
cause declines in the number of devices shipped and the total market size. This is evidenced by
dedicated WAN optimization and security appliances, which are increasingly delivered as added
features as part of SD-WAN. This bodes well for buyers, as multifunction devices typically sell for
less than several dedicated devices.

Popular and Emerging Topics

Current Trends
Internet Substitution for MPLS Connections

Many Gartner clients hope to fund their WAN expansion/updates by replacing or reducing the
bandwidth of expensive MPLS connections with internet-based virtual private networks (VPNs), often
from alternative providers. However, the suitability of internet connections varies by geography,
access types and oversubscription levels, and service providers mixing connections from multiple
vendors increases complexity. SD-WAN has simplified this approach for the following reasons:
■ Due to the simpler operational environment and the ability to use multiple circuits from multiple
carriers, enterprises can abstract the transport layer from the logical layer and depend less on their
service providers.

■ This decoupling of layers is enabling new MNS providers to emerge to take advantage of the
above for customers that still want to outsource their WANs.

Automation and Agility

Many WAN changes remain manual and CLI-driven (more than 60% for many enterprises). Thus, in
many inquiries regarding WAN, Gartner clients mention a desire to improve automation and agility. In
some instances, the focus is on dedicated SD-WAN tools; however, this desire occasionally drives
investment in nontraditional tooling, such as Ansible or intent-based networking. Gartner clients
report operational savings as high as 90%, when comparing SD-WAN solutions with traditional router-
based deployments (administration time of five minutes/month versus one hour/month).

SaaS Optimization

Although WAN optimization is in decline, SaaS optimization isn’t. As more and more apps move to
the cloud, optimizing the performance in terms of packet loss, latency and jitter over the internet is
becoming increasingly important. One obstacle to adopting internet access for enterprise
applications is performance and SaaS optimization looks to address this market need (see “WAN
Practices to Optimize Application Performance”).

Future Trends
Thin Versus Thick Branch

One of the major decisions customers will increasingly need to make in the next few years is whether
to select a thick branch with all functions deployed at the customer location or more of a thin branch
with some functions on the edge supplemented by functions hosted in the cloud. The former would
be for organizations with stronger IT organizations that want more on-premises control. The latter is
for leaner IT and, ultimately, more operational flexibility.

Merging of Security and Networking/SASE

At one time, security and network procurements were handled separately. Increasingly, we see
network and security decisions being made at the same time and more often with the same solution.
This is largely driven by the move to distribute internet access to support cloud applications and
change the security perimeter. This goes with the deployment of SD-WAN at the branch locations to
manage the internet transport. As part of a desire to minimize branch sprawl, we expect to see more
customers looking for vendors with a combined security and networking solution or as part of a
broader ecosystem. The deployment model will also be determined by the decision of the thin versus
thick branch (see “The Future of Network Security Is in the Cloud”).

SD-Branch
Gartner increasingly sees vendors building a common orchestration among the LAN, WLAN, WAN
and, sometimes, security, which is increasingly known as SD-branch. It offers increased simplicity in
managing WLAN, LAN, WAN and security policies and profiles with a single orchestrated solution.
Integrating these domains will increasingly be a differentiating factor for some vendors. Although
Gartner still sees customers procuring LAN/WLAN separate from WAN, there is increasing evidence
that this may change for certain customer environments.

Leveraging AI/ML

There is a trend to more autonomous and self-driving networks in which AI/ML technologies can be
leveraged to adapt to network traffic patterns. The objective is to make networking even easier for
Day 2 operations for end users, reduce operating expenditures (opex), increase speed/agility and
improve uptime/performance. Although it is still early in many vendors’ product development, we are
seeing this functionality being incorporated into an increasing number of vendor solutions offering
differentiation.

Application Analytics

Application visibility and analytics are becoming more important to get better feedback as to the
applications running on the network. Whether this is for on-premises applications or applications in
the cloud, enterprises are looking for more details to help troubleshoot, plan and confirm that specific
application performance/QoE is being delivered for end users. Increasingly, we see demand for end-
user experience metrics from the end user to the actual application, which may be hosted in a CSP.

Remote User Access

With the impacts of Covid-19, remote user access has become critical for ongoing business
operation. It has moved from an occasional use model that was not supported with an SD-WAN
fabric to an overnight need. We are seeing this move away from remote VPN and extending the SD-
WAN fabrics directly to end users or with zero trust network access (ZTNA) as part of a SASE
offering. Although the future of remote working is unclear, workers will be increasingly mobile. SD-
WAN vendors are focused on solving this connectivity option going forward.

Cloud Onramp

There are various ways to connect to cloud workloads, whether they are IaaS or SaaS. Depending on
how distributed your cloud workloads are will influence cloud onramp options. Options include
connecting via a carrier neutral facility such as Equinix, directly connecting to cloud service providers
such as Azure or AWS, leveraging a software-defined cloud internet (SDCI) provider, or deploying
virtual instances of SD-WAN gateways in various cloud providers. For cloud-first enterprises, how this
is supported is becoming increasingly relevant for buying decisions.

5G

5G is hyped technology that some expect to replace wired access WANs. In Gartner’s view, due to
limited coverage, various 5G technology options with different performance and RF propagation, and
few truly unlimited data plans, 5G is still not in a position to transform WAN architectures for at least
another two years (see “Don’t Expect 5G to Replace Wired Access WANs Anytime Soon”). However,
new mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) use cases will take advantage of 5G.

Market Overview
Gartner’s view of the market is focused on transformational technologies or approaches delivering
on the future needs of end users. It is not exclusively focused on today’s market.

This dynamic market, with emerging client needs, has created a deeply fragmented vendor
landscape, with large established vendors and smaller providers from multiple segments competing
for market share. Differentiation can be:

■ Feature-based — e.g., ease of cloud connectivity, embedded NGFW or application performance

■ Business-model-based — e.g., pure subscription or WAN as a service using proprietary

technologies

■ Go-to-market — e.g., direct, master agents, product-focused VARs or SIs as MSPs

Some vendors focus on feature depth on a specific use case or two. Others choose an “all-in-one
offering” approach. Scale of deployment and the ability to support complex environments remain
differentiators at the high end of the market, where some customers require deployments of several
thousand branches across multiple geographies.

Market Drivers
The WAN edge market is primarily driven by the following factors:

■ Refresh of existing branch office router equipment that is at end of support or lacks the desired
capabilities

■ Renewal of NSP or managed service contracts, where a new service provider also means new
equipment

■ Changing traffic patterns resulting from increased use of cloud and multicloud resources that
render the traditional hub-and-spoke from remote branch to on-premises data center WAN
architecture obsolete

■ Distribution of internet access to the branch, with security perimeter changes that typically drive
new solutions

■ Expansion of capacity (i.e., physical build-outs) within existing locations

■ The desire to increase agility and automation to address the needs of digital business
transformation and reduce opex

■ The desire to consolidate more than one branch function, such as routing, security and WAN
optimization (e.g., SASE)

■ The move to push more functions to the cloud for flexibility and agility

Moving forward, Gartner views SD-WAN and SASE as key technologies to help enterprises transform
their networks from fragile to agile. SASE splits functions between on-premises and the cloud, and
Gartner expects to see more functions supported in the cloud. The resulting deployments will
increasingly become a choice between a thick branch with more functions operated locally, and a
thin branch with more functions operated in the cloud. Increasingly, we see the consolidation and
integration of network and security functions to be drivers of such decisions.

Vendor Landscape Changes

Just a few years ago, the WAN edge market was dominated by a few suppliers with long histories of
providing routing. Security and WAN optimization was often provided by separate dedicated
appliances, and, even when device consolidation was available, the cost savings were small.

With the acceptance of SD-WAN and the demonstration that routing has become commoditized,
companies that offered adjacent solutions are now aggressively competing.

This Magic Quadrant covers well-known incumbent vendors, as well as a number of smaller suppliers.
We estimate that the WAN edge market has about 80 suppliers, and more are likely to enter the market.
We expect this market to remain fragmented during the next few years, with some acquisitions.
Acquisitions may come in the form of small vendors combining to achieve scale, vendors looking to
enter the space, and consolidation among networking and security vendors. Going forward, we expect
networking and security consolidations to drive M&A activity. As we look out five years, more than 10
mainstream suppliers are likely to remain.

Recent M&A activity in this space includes Palo Alto Networks’ purchase of CloudGenix and HPE’s
announcement of its intent to acquire Silver Peak. Although it is not the acquisition of an SD-WAN
vendor, Fortinet also acquired Opaq Networks.

Market Recommendations
I&O leaders responsible for building and operating WANs should:

■ Build a hybrid WAN architecture with SD-WAN products, if they have a mix of public and private
applications. If all applications are in the cloud, then leverage an all-internet solution focused on
 dedicated internet access (DIA) offerings.

■ Shortlist at least two vendors (for example, a small vendor and a large vendor) in addition to their
incumbent WAN edge vendors for significant WAN expansion or router refresh.

■ Quantify the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an SD-WAN deployment. Savings may fund an early
refresh; however, a detailed, end-to-end, life cycle analysis is required (see “Technology Insight for
SD-WAN,” “Toolkit: Calculate the Before-and-After SD-WAN Expenses” and “Fact or Fiction: Does
SD-WAN Really Save You Money?”). WAN edge solutions more commonly have opex-friendly
business models, with a strong shift from upfront capital expenditures (capex) to annual license
subscriptions. This may dramatically increase TCO. To perform a proper evaluation comparison,
quotes should include all platform, license and support costs for a three-year baseline.

■ Choose WAN “as a service” for their next refresh, if they are looking for an MNS, prefer opex to
capex, or prefer to rent, rather than own their equipment (see “DIY vs. MNS: Enterprises Must
Reassess Their Network Sourcing Model to Prepare for SD-WAN” and “Debunk the Misperceptions
About Network as a Service”).

■ Evaluate NSP and non-NSP — such as MSPs, independent software provider (ISP) aggregators and
SIs — options (see “Market Guide for Managed SD-WAN Services”), if choosing managed SD-WAN.

■ Favor WAN edge vendors that can facilitate automation. As a key part of vendor evaluation,
include an evaluation of the operational model of any new WAN edge solution to determine
potential savings and differentiation among competing vendors.

■ Leverage ISP aggregators who can ease the procurement and management of internet access
circuits (see “4 Steps in Selecting ISP Aggregation Services”) in highly distributed organizations.

■ Evaluate SD-branch solutions to simplify the management of their LAN, WLAN, WAN and security
for small branch offices.

■ Evaluate vendors with strong orchestration with cloud providers to simplify distributed cloud
access for cloud-first companies and evaluate SaaS optimization capabilities to ensure a
consistent, high-performing, end-user experience.

■ Run a pilot to test the SD-WAN solution in a production capacity to validate performance in a real-
world environment. Ensure that at least one critical site is tested with the solution deployed, before
any final decision is made.

DIY customers should research solutions with a strong AI/ML focus to enhance Day 2 operations.

Extended Market Definition

Characteristics of the Market
Typical business outcomes: The fundamental business outcome is connectivity between enterprise
users, applications and services that reside in distributed locations (both on-premises and off-
premises). Locations include headquarters, branches, corporate data centers, colocation/hosting
facilities, SaaS providers and cloud service providers. Increasingly, buyers require improved agility,
automation, orchestration, flexibility and application control.

Market: WAN edge infrastructure provides network functions that support connectivity for distributed
locations (typically branches). This market includes functionality that Gartner defines as traditional
routers, security appliances, WAN optimization controllers (WOCs), WAN path controllers and SD-
WAN. For the purposes of this research, we focus mainly on SD-WAN, because that is where the
solutions are gravitating. They are the most relevant to customers making WAN-buying decisions.

Typical buyers: In the enterprise, CIOs, CTOs, the vice president of I&O, the director of networking,
and network and telecom managers are typically the buyers of WAN edge infrastructure. Branch
managers, enterprise architects, and security personnel are strong influencers in larger enterprises
as well. Increasingly, we see security personnel playing prominent roles in the selection process.

How buyers shape their buying decisions: When selecting WAN edge infrastructure, buyers typically
focus on several factors, including vendor incumbency and familiarity, feature/functionality, pricing
options, performance, form factor, deployment options, ease of management, visibility/analytics,
customer support/experience, overall product architecture, vertical focus and geographical strength.
The solution set is strongly influenced by changing traffic patterns affecting the enterprise WAN.

Deliverables: The primary deliverables include network functions that enable connectivity for users at
branches. Typical network functions include edge routing, security and VPN, WAN optimization, and
SD-WAN. These functions are increasingly delivered to the enterprise as integrated or as a software
instance of these functions (e.g., a VNF) and, less frequently, as dedicated hardware appliances
(such as routers, WOCs, security or SD-WAN edge devices). These may reside at the customer
premises, in provider points of presence (POPs) or as a network-based/cloud service.

How providers package, market and deliver: Buyers typically source their WAN edge infrastructure
products directly from network equipment suppliers, or via a network or MSP (that is, as a managed
service). WAN edge infrastructure can be procured via purchase, leasing, rental, term-based or
subscription-based pricing models. Furthermore, there is a diverse set of deployment options for
these networking functions, including via hardware appliances, software (e.g., VNF) or cloud-based
services.

Characteristics of WAN Edge Solutions

WAN edge solutions are characterized by the following elements:

Physical interfaces: This refers to physical interfaces to plug into the service providers’ circuits.
Ethernet is rapidly becoming the default connection, and link speeds are increasing to multigigabit
speeds. Flexible options beyond just Ethernet offer more value to customers.

Physical topology: Traditional hub-and-spoke WAN architectures are no longer suitable for most
enterprises. Easy to implement mesh and partial mesh topologies are becoming increasingly
relevant. Enterprises are altering their WAN architectures in support of new digital business initiatives
and the adoption of public cloud services (e.g., SaaS, IaaS and PaaS). The rationale is that migration
of applications to the public cloud can lead to distinct challenges, including:

■ Network performance problems, as traffic is backhauled; this typically increases latency and
congestion.

■ WAN expenses increase due to backhauled internet traffic with cost of paying for bandwidth twice
(MPLS to the data center and from the data center to the internet).

Routing, WAN Optimization and Security

With part of the first phase of SD-WAN, we saw some SD-WAN deployments deployed behind
traditional routers. However, as SD-WAN routing functionality has improved and, in most cases, has
become equal to traditional routers, vendor products have been proved, and traditional routers are
reaching end of life. We see SD-WAN operating as the main WAN edge function in customer
networks going forward.

Gartner is seeing two approaches from vendors

■ They are natively incorporating multiple functions into their solutions (e.g., SD-WAN, WAN
optimization and security).

■ They are partnering with other point solution vendors.

Deployment Options
We see several deployment methods available for the enterprise to consume network functions:

■ Dedicated hardware appliance — This is the traditional style of deployment, in which a single
network function is delivered as a turnkey, integrated hardware appliance. Although still common,
the trend is to move aware from this option as on-site technology becomes obsolete or inefficient.
If retained, we do see the trend of at least the on-site router migrating to an SD-WAN solution.

■ Multifunctional integrated platform — This platform combines proprietary hardware and software
to deliver multiple functions, such as WAN optimization, routing and security. This can be deployed
in two ways:

■ Native functionality by the vendor

■ Partnership by the vendor with another best-of-breed solution that is tightly integrated
 ■ Examples include FortiGate appliances; Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect, with Unity Boost; and
Versa’s VOS.

■ Virtualized network function — This is a software-based instance of a network function that can
be delivered on an x86-based computing platform. Nearly all routing, WAN optimization and SD-
WAN vendors deliver a VNF and/or VM version of their software.

■ uCPE — This multifunctional platform supports a network function virtualization (NFV)

architecture, designed around industry standards to run multiple virtual functions, with possibly
different vendors’ functions in the same device. The platform allows multiple VNFs to be installed,
and typically makes use of industry-standard x86 devices, rather than function-specific appliances.
Juniper Networks’ NFX and Cisco ENCS are examples of a hardware uCPE platform. Universal CPE
is one delivery method for an NFV deployment with the functions residing on-premises. With the
goal of increasing the agility of enterprise networks, enabling them to respond to changing needs
more rapidly in a more on-demand manner and avoid vendor lock-in. Today, uCPE is primarily a
carrier-driven technology, and has adoption challenges with pricing, performance, standard
orchestration and networking integration. We see SASE limiting the future adoption of uCPE.

■ Cloud-based OTT — Network function is delivered via a cloud platform, and the enterprise
subscribes to the functionality. An example is Aryaka, which provides WAN optimization and other
application performance functionality. We are also seeing security delivered in this model, which
will drive adoption of the thin CPE model.

■ SASE — This involves integrated networking and security with networking delivered from a
lightweight branch levels and security delivered in the cloud from a cloud security company. Most
companies deliver this as an orchestrated service chain with third-party security companies, but
vendors such as Palo Alto and Cisco in this research have native capabilities. Gartner is
increasingly seeing this architecture delivered from a single vendor, and to achieve that, may spur
more acquisitions such as Palo Alto’s purchase of CloudGenix.

Consumption Models for WAN Edge Infrastructure

Enterprises consume WAN edge infrastructure functionality in multiple ways, including:

■ DIY — Enterprise owns and manages WAN edge functionality itself.

■ NSP — NSP manages the WAN transport and, optionally, the WAN edge equipment.

■ MNS — Managed NSPs include SIs, MSPs and ISP aggregators that managed the WAN edge
equipment and may resell third-party access or, in some cases, enable bring your own access
(BYOA)

■ Hybrid — This is a combination of at least two of the above.

On a global basis, most WAN edge infrastructure is provided as a managed service, either via an NSP,
SI, MSP or ISP aggregator. Conversely, in North America, the predominant way of managing WAN
edge infrastructure for a large enterprise is DIY. Overall, Gartner sees the trend for more MNSs, and
the growth is expected to come from non-NSP providers. We also see an increasing trend of co-
management, in which the client retains control over business policies and the MNS provider
controls how those policies are enforced.

In this research, we focus primarily on WAN edge functionality that can address multiple
consumption models.

Evidence
Gartner analysts conducted more than 3,000 Gartner client inquiries on the topic of WAN between 1
July 2019 and 30 June 2020.

Gartner analysts conducted more than 1,000 Gartner client inquiries on the topic of SD-WAN between
1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020.

Market size forecast sources are from “Forecast: Enterprise Network Equipment by Market Segment,
Worldwide, 2017-2024, 2Q20.”

All vendors in this research responded to an extensive questionnaire regarding their current/future
data center networking solutions.

Analysts reviewed Gartner Peer Insights data for this market.

Gartner analysts reviewed publicly available information online.

Social Media Conversation Analysis: Gartner conducts social listening analysis leveraging third-party
data tools to complement or supplement the other fact bases presented in this document. Due to its
qualitative and organic nature, the results should not be used separately from the rest of this
research. No conclusions should be drawn from this data alone. Social media data in reference is
from 1 August 2016 through 30 April 2020 in all geographies (except China) and recognized
languages.

By default, social media sources considered for analysis include Twitter, Facebook (publicly available
information only), aggregator websites, blogs, news, mainstream media, forums and videos
(comments only); unless and until specified.

Ritesh Kumar Srivastava and Ayush Saxena from the Social Media Analytics Team contributed to this
research.

Evaluation Criteria Definitions

Ability to Execute
Product/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor for the defined market. This
includes current product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills and so on, whether offered
natively or through OEM agreements/partnerships as defined in the market definition and detailed in
the subcriteria.

Overall Viability: Viability includes an assessment of the overall organization's financial health, the
financial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood that the individual business
unit will continue investing in the product, will continue offering the product and will advance the
state of the art within the organization's portfolio of products.

Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor's capabilities in all presales activities and the structure that
supports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation, presales support, and the
overall effectiveness of the sales channel.

Market Responsiveness/Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and achieve

competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve and market
dynamics change. This criterion also considers the vendor's history of responsiveness.

Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the
organization's message to influence the market, promote the brand and business, increase
awareness of the products, and establish a positive identification with the product/brand and
organization in the minds of buyers. This "mind share" can be driven by a combination of publicity,
promotional initiatives, thought leadership, word of mouth and sales activities.

Customer Experience: Relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients to be

successful with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receive
technical support or account support. This can also include ancillary tools, customer support
programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups, service-level agreements and so on.

Operations: The ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Factors include the
quality of the organizational structure, including skills, experiences, programs, systems and other
vehicles that enable the organization to operate effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis.

Completeness of Vision
Market Understanding: Ability of the vendor to understand buyers' wants and needs and to translate
those into products and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen to and
understand buyers' wants and needs, and can shape or enhance those with their added vision.

Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated throughout

the organization and externalized through the website, advertising, customer programs and
positioning statements.
 Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling products that uses the appropriate network of direct and
indirect sales, marketing, service, and communication affiliates that extend the scope and depth of
market reach, skills, expertise, technologies, services and the customer base.

Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor's approach to product development and delivery that
emphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature sets as they map to current and
future requirements.

Business Model: The soundness and logic of the vendor's underlying business proposition.

Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the
specific needs of individual market segments, including vertical markets.

Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital
for investment, consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes.

Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the
specific needs of geographies outside the "home" or native geography, either directly or through
partners, channels and subsidiaries as appropriate for that geography and market.

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