Do you know SD-WAN? In recent years, why is SD-WAN so popular as one of the most popular technologies in enterprise WAN layout?
With the rapid development of network technology, cloud computing is becoming more and more mature, and more and more businesses need to go to the cloud. Traditional networks have been unable to flexibly respond to the needs of enterprise networking, data transmission, SaaS acceleration, and hybrid cloud architecture. SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network), as a technology with a higher degree of automation for managing WAN (Wide Area Network), improves the flexibility and real-time performance of network transmission by virtualizing the transmission network, compared with VPN and MPLS. Private lines also reduce the cost of WAN connections for enterprises, so they are widely welcomed by enterprises.
According to IDC data, the size of China’s SD-WAN market in the first half of 2022 is US$120 million. There are currently about 70 vendors in the global SD-WAN market, and new vendors are still entering the market. At current trends, the SD-WAN race is still crowded for years to come.
Recently, the 2022 Gartner “SD-WAN Magic Quadrant Report” was released, so what is the current and future of SD-WAN? Fortinet Asia Pacific Product Marketing Manager Yu Ji conducted an in-depth analysis of the report and conducted in-depth exchanges with several media platforms including Leifeng.com.
SD-WAN all the way up
Why are you optimistic about SD-WAN? Is the router really going downhill gradually? Looking at the Magic Quadrant released by Gartner this year, SD-WAN is all the way up.
There are three main changes in the SD-WAN Magic Quadrant this year:
First: the name change. Gartner updated the Magic Quadrant name from “WAN edge infrastructure” to “SD-WAN”. That is to say, the products previously aimed at the edge of the enterprise WAN have switched from the edge routers that were the dominant ones to the SD-WAN scenario.
Second: the requirements for safety are higher. 2022 Gartner’s “SD-WAN Critical Capabilities Report” has increased the number of evaluation items from 9 last year to 11, mainly splitting the evaluation security capabilities into On-Premises Security (Native), Cloud-Delivered Security (Native) and Partner-Integrated Three different assessment items for Cloud Security. The splitting of projects is more detailed, which also represents the market’s attention to the security capabilities of SD-WAN products.
Third: the market is more mature. As can be seen from the above figure, in the Leaders quadrant, the six manufacturers that were originally disorganized have appeared layered this year. The differentiation of different manufacturers is more obvious, the demand is more mature and standardized, and the market is gradually becoming more mature.
Although SD-WAN is improving all the way, it is inevitable that new entrants will continue to emerge, such as some public cloud vendors.
Yu Ji predicts: “The current competitive landscape will not undergo major changes in at least three years. In the future, the SD-WAN market will have the opportunity to be like the firewall market. There will be 2-3 leaders in the leader quadrant. In certain areas, a small number are in the Visionary and Challenger quadrants.” Although cloud vendors can provide very convenient ways to go to the cloud, such as providing global backbones and integration of services. However, with the development of the multi-cloud trend, it is difficult for users to be bound by one cloud, so they may not choose the SD-WAN solution provided by a cloud vendor.
So for Fortinet not to worry, let’s take a look at why Fortinet can be a leader in the SD-WAN Magic Quadrant.
In the SD-WAN Magic Quadrant, the horizontal axis tests the manufacturer’s understanding and foresight of the market and customers, and the vertical axis represents the manufacturer’s execution ability, that is, the true capability of the product. From the figure, we can see that Fortinet, VMware, and Cisco performed very strongly on the vertical and horizontal axes; while Palo Alto, Versa Networks, and HPE (Aruba) performed slightly less on the vertical axis.
Among the six vendors, only two vendors, Fortinet and Versa Networks, entered the leader quadrant through self-developed SD-WAN products, and the remaining four vendors’ SD-WAN products were acquired through acquisitions. Among them, Fortinet is the only security manufacturer that develops SD-WAN products through independent innovation and adheres to the network security integration strategy.
Yu Ji said that in the future, network and security integration, network as a service, and AI-enabled operations will become important trends. And this is the key capability that Fortinet has.
Strong growth for Fortinet
If we go back to three years ago, we can see that Fortinet is a continuous upward process. Whether it is in terms of execution or vision, it continues to move towards the upper right corner. On the other hand, the user level of SD-WAN has achieved extremely high growth in one year. Relative to 2021 Fortinet gained 19,000+ SD-WAN users this year, a 90% increase in the number of users.
Some time ago, Fortinet released its financial report for the second quarter of 2022. The company’s revenue was $1.03 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28.6%; billing revenue was $1.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 35.7%; GAAP net profit and diluted net income per share were $0.21. Ken Xie, founder, chairman and CEO of Fortinet, said: “The number of orders and transactions exceeding $1 million in the second quarter increased by more than 50% year-on-year.”
Fortinet can grow strongly, Yu Ji pointed out: “Mainly innovate and break through itself in terms of product capabilities and solution capabilities.”
First, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) capabilities are incorporated into SD-WAN solutions. The arrival of the epidemic era has normalized mixed offices. Integrating zero-trust network access can ensure online office, which is more secure than traditional VPN.
Second, the update of complex networking capabilities. One product provides both SD-WAN and NGFW (Next Generation Firewall) capabilities. In terms of solution capabilities, it integrates cloud capabilities and local delivery capabilities. Both cloud delivery and local delivery have a unified data warehouse and large panel management.
Finally, the natively integrated security solution includes functions such as local deployment and SSE. Capability delivery is in the form of network and security integration, and is no longer separated.
As a framework for network and security integration, SASE emphasizes the integration of SD-WAN-led network capabilities and FWaaS, SWG, ZTNA and other security capabilities. Therefore, for SDWAN, the natural evolution route must be SASE. Then, as a Fortinet SD-WAN solution with inherent security capabilities, it is bound to become an important cornerstone for the implementation of SASE.
SASE is equal to the networking capability plus security capability of SD-WAN. Simply put, SASE= networking capability + security capability. The networking capability Gartner changed its name to SD-WAN this year.
It is not difficult to see from the market forecast of Gartner’s “SD-WAN Key Capabilities Report”. The forecast mentions: By 2025, 50% of SD-WAN will be part of integrated SASE products; 40% of enterprises will consider SD-WAN as a For deployment, AI empowerment will be used to reduce operational pressure; in the future, 50% of SD-WAN purchases will be delivered in the form of SASE.
There are currently three different types of SASE on the market:
The first type is Single Vendor (Single Vendor) SASE, which puts more emphasis on network and security capabilities and is delivered in a highly integrated manner. Utilize a unified data model and data lake, and use AI technology for operations and threat defense.
The second type is Multi-vendor (multi-vendor) SASE, which is often integrated by network SD-WAN vendors and SASE vendors to provide multi-vendor SASE capabilities. For example, vendors that have acquired SD-WAN capabilities through acquisitions are difficult to provide integrated delivery of security capabilities even under the same brand.
The third type is managed SASE, which provides an experience similar to Single Vendor SASE through a managed service, because the differences and details between different vendors are shielded through this managed service provider, so as to give customers an experience similar to The concept of Single Vendor SASE.
Therefore, the SASE solution provided by “single supplier” will become the choice of more enterprises in the future. The value of SASE can not only improve the security posture, but also automate operations to improve the efficiency of network and security teams, and improve the user and management experience.
Fortinet is the first vendor in the industry to deliver SD-WAN, NGFW, advanced routing, ZTNA and other capabilities at the network edge through endogenous integration.
Fortinet said: “SASE is not only one of the future trends, but network-as-a-service capabilities will also be an important trend in the long run. Fortinet has always adhered to one direction, customer-centric and demand-centric.” (Leifeng Network)
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