Researchers also found that just under one third of interviewees (32%) has yet to examine SD-WAN’s potential, although 27% say they might do so at some point in the future.
When senior IT professionals were asked why they were considering SD-WAN, the most common reason was the increasing complexity of network infrastructure and performance tasks (cited by 36% of interviewees), closely followed by the need to cut network costs (34%) and the need for better management of network infrastructures (also 34%).
Increasing pressure on both company resources and budgets as IT teams look after more complex network infrastructures is driving companies to examine SD-WAN’s potential.
Exactly half of companies questioned say that deploying and managing networking infrastructure is time-consuming. Interviewees estimate that these upkeep tasks take up 36% of their overall IT budget. One third of the survey (33%) admit that they had used ‘as a Service’ models from external providers to keep on top of maintenance tasks.
Researchers also found that companies are shrewdly blending connectivity options to get necessary bandwidth: nearly four in ten (38%) of interviewees want to add more MPLS, 22% want more Internet connectivity, and 20% want to add more Internet and MPLS combined. Under one in five (17%) said their needs were satisfied.
Researchers also found that corporate IT teams are considering a range of SD-WAN providers.
Global networking vendors were the most likely choice of partner (39%), while 24% want a telecoms provider and 24% regard a management consultancy as the preferred supplier.
Small numbers of IT executives are looking for niche players for help: 8% of interviewees are looking for a specialist SD-WAN vendor, 3% are seeking a specialist integrator of SD-WAN and another 3% say they will rely on multiple partners, suggesting that there are still many views on how to deploy these technologies.
Marc Sollars, CTO of Teneo, said: “Network managers are looking at SD-WAN strategies to run multiple networking environments in standardised ways – whether the underlying motivation is greater simplicity, cost efficiency or transforming critical applications’ performance across their company’s operations.”
“Many firms are clearly putting a toe in the water on SD-WAN, or doing a proof of concept, but it’s still very hard to say when this test phase will start to translate into enterprise-level implementations. In many ways, the broad range of choice that SD-WAN brings is what’s causing companies to hesitate over their decisions.”