VMware and Cisco Continue To Battle for SD-WAN Supremacy

A new report by Dell’Oro Group identified VMware, Cisco, and Fortinet as the top three SD-WAN vendors battling to win the race for SD-WAN supremacy.

The onset of COVID-19 initiated stay-at-home orders and lockdowns that impacted businesses of all sizes. The growth of the work-from-home (WFH) model increased the pain points for IT departments as they didn’t have full visibility of remote enterprise networks, which affected remote IT operational experience and employee productivity. 

This forced IT decision-makers (ITDMs) to restrategize IT priorities and double down investments in SD-WAN. SD-WAN became a game-changer for distributed work and reduced the dependency of organizations on physical infrastructure for everyday business operations.

Even though the WFH trend boosted the SD-WAN market, it witnessed a slowdown due to pandemic-driven supply chain and sales challenges. However, as per Futuriom’s reportOpens a new window , the SD-WAN market is expected to reach $2 billion in 2020 and $2.85 billion in 2021. On similar lines, Dell’Oro Group has anticipated that the market will surpass $3.2 billion in 2024.Opens a new window  

Moreover, the growing merger and acquisition (M&A) and consolidation trend is another driver for the SD-WAN market. And there have been major consolidations in 2020, including VMware’s Nyansa acquisition in January 2020, HPE’s Silver Peak acquisition in September 2020, and Juniper Networks’ 128 Technology acquisition in October 2020.

This week, Dell’Oro Group releasedOpens a new window its 3Q 2020 Router & Carrier Ethernet Switch (CES) Report. The report reveals that the SD-WAN market will continue to expand at double-digit rates. The company has also named VMware, Cisco, and Fortinet, Versa, and Silver Peak (acquired by HPE) as the top five market vendors in the Q3 market share. 

The five vendors continue to battle for SD-WAN supremacy since Q1, 2020. In its first-quarter reportOpens a new window , Dell’Oro Group had named Cisco, Silver Peak, Versa, VMWare, and Fortinet as the top five vendors that contributed a revenue share of almost 60% in 2019. 

Also Read: Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G To Soar Despite the Pandemic

For the first nine months of 2020, the SD-WAN market grew by more than 20% compared to 2019, according to Dell’Oro’s Q3, 2020 report.

Since 2017, Cisco and VMware have been locked in an intense battle to win and rule the SD-WAN market. Both the companies have made major investments to buy SD-WAN pure players such as Viptela (acquired by Cisco) and Velocloud (acquired by VMware). They have also made efforts to deliver secure SD-WAN products to their customers. In 2019, IDC’s SD-WAN infrastructure reportOpens a new window named Cisco as the market leader based on its revenue, Viptela purchase, and customer-first SD-WAN approach. Furthermore, a new report by eWeek identified Cisco as the leader in the SD-WAN market, followed by VMware. 

In contrast, a 2019 report by IHS Markit revealedOpens a new window that VMware controlled 20.3% of the SD-WAN market revenue while Cisco controlled only 13.1%. These reports and findings indicate that both companies are giving tough competition to each other with their products and partnerships and might continue doing so in the upcoming years.

Shin Umeda, VP at Dell’Oro Group, saidOpens a new window , “Demand for SD-WAN is holding up well in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when compared to hardware-based networking technologies such as access routers. The demand for enterprise networking gear has stabilized from the first half of the year, and we see this as a precursor to the SD-WAN market acceleration that we are forecasting for next year.”

SD-WAN is an essential tool that underpins technologies such as cloud services, 5G, IoT. Due to its remote access security, network reliability, agility, and cost-efficiency, businesses are now increasing SD-WAN adoption and investments. In 2021, the SD-WAN market is anticipated to accelerate with a continued competition between the top 5 vendors. The market might also witness more mergers and consolidations, which will further pump up the SD-WAN market revenue and bolster SD-WAN vendors’ overall growth and business.

Who will lead the SD-WAN market in 2021? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!