As SD-WAN technology continues to mature in 2021, the technology’s support for integrated remote access, automation, and multi-cloud connectivity is expected to get more improvements.
Software-defined WAN remains a key technology to enhancing user experience (UX), improving security, and providing connectivity to cloud-based applications.
As SD-WAN matures, its scope of application is also expanding to provide options for remote access, support IoT connections, link to the secure access service edge (SASE) architecture, and provide SD-branch Features.
Its ability to link with industry-leading IaaS and SaaS applications, as well as its overall management and orchestration capabilities (especially cloud-based intelligence and automation, easy installation, and problem-solving), has continued to improve.
7 major SD-WAN technology trends to watch in 2021
The following are seven key areas that SD-WAN development enterprise network teams should focus on in 2021.
(1) Now need to integrate remote access
Research firm Doyle Research predicts that in the future, tens of millions of workers will work remotely for at least half of a week in order to eliminate commuting time, better arrange work time, or complete work.
Many IT organizations are now prioritizing providing streamlined and secure access to these employees. The current virtual private network technology is not a good long-term strategy. IT organizations are looking for remote connection options that integrate with continuous security, such as SASE architecture.
SD-WAN provides comprehensive technologies that can solve the reliability, latency, and performance challenges of the home office. It also provides protection against malware and phishing attacks that may cause the loss of sensitive data. Many SD-WAN providers have integrated Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) to further improve their remote access capabilities.
(2) SD-WAN conforms to SASE
The term SASE is all the rage in 2020. It indicates the convergence of network and security functions in cloud computing. Dozens of network and security vendors (including most major SD-WAN vendors) now claim to provide SASE functionality.
At this point, SASE is more like a future architecture than a product. Most existing products have some shortcomings in some aspects of the SASE feature list. Most IT and security organizations continue to rely on their existing layered security product strategy.
For example, next-generation firewalls, application delivery controllers, secure web gateways, cloud access security brokers (CASB), identity, security information, event management (SIEM), and ZTNA, provide protection for networks, applications, and data.
By 2021, SD-WAN vendors will continue to enhance and expand their network security products, including remote access, ZTNA, CASB, and SIEM functions. They will also improve the ability to set unified security policies across remote connections, branches, LAN, and WAN access. These products may be added to installed network security policies rather than replacing them, especially in large organizations.
(3) Growth of SD branch
The SD branch simplifies network operations by integrating WAN connectivity (ie SD-WAN and routing) with network security and LAN/Wi-Fi in a unified platform that is easy to deploy and manage.
As SD-WAN vendors continue to innovate their platforms, they will increasingly add SD branch functions to their products. As an all-in-one option for branch operations, the SD branch has great economic significance. Doyle Research expects that the market size of the SD branch will grow from hundreds of millions of dollars in 2021 to billions of dollars in 2025.
(4) 5G becomes a viable SD-WAN link
5G cellular networks can now provide the same connection speed as many broadband Internet services. They are easy to configure and can quickly expand to new branch locations. In 2021, more and more organizations will use 5G as one of the SD-WAN connections to achieve backup and reliability. As the 5G competition intensifies, the cost of unlimited data plans will drop, making 5G WAN connections more attractive.
(5) Automation and artificial intelligence make a deep impression
SD-WAN vendors have been talking about how artificial intelligence and machine learning will automate their networks, but the actual implementation is not satisfactory. In 2021, vendors will begin to fulfill their promises to improve automation for their SD-WAN products and services. Their goal is to provide a unified platform for centralized control of security policies, service quality, applications, users, and equipment; enable IT operators to ensure the quality of service (QoS) on an end-to-end basis, and quickly identify and correct The speed of the application slows down.
(6) Improved multi-cloud connectivity
As more and more applications turn to IaaS and SaaS platforms, companies must provide simplified Internet access from branches to specific cloud-based services. SD-WAN providers have partnered with industry-leading IaaS providers and some SaaS platforms (such as Microsoft 365) to simplify access and accelerate connections.
In 2021, SD-WAN providers will continue to strengthen their cloud computing partnerships by providing more granular access control and improving quality of service (QoS) reliability. When the IaaS provider establishes a local service point in its edge computing strategy, the SD-WAN provider will provide traffic management to ensure that the traffic flows to the best point of service provision (PoP) to ensure consistent quality of service (QoS).
(7) Growth of hosting services
The first wave of SD-WAN adoption was driven by industry-leading organizations that implemented the technology together with internal IT teams. The spread of SD-WAN sold as a managed service will promote the second wave of adoption.
Managed network services are a popular method for IT organizations to outsource the challenges of providing connectivity to their branch offices and data centers. The implementation and integration of SD-WAN are still complicated, especially for small and medium-sized organizations and those that adopt lean IT concepts. SD-WAN provided as a managed service eliminates many deployment barriers and is very suitable for IT outsourcing strategies.
Besides the 7 Major SD-WAN Trends In 2021 article, you may also be interested in the below articles.
What is the difference between WIFI and WLAN?
Summary of 41 Basic Knowledge of LTE
What Is The 5G Network Slicing?