Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) has reached mainstream adoption among South African organisations.
This is according to local market analyst firm BMIT’s 2024 SD-WAN report, which provides an analysis of the South African SD-WAN market, including market size, forecasts, competitor profiles and technology trends.
The report is based on primary and secondary research, including interviews with leading managed services players in the virtual private network (VPN) market in South Africa.
Chris Geerdts, managing director of BMIT, notes the cost savings of SD-WAN over multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) were always compelling, but there were initial concerns over SD-WAN’s security and performance, as it was untested.
However, he points out that successful deployments by early adopters have led to deployments across all industry verticals in a relatively short space of time.
BMIT projects that in South Africa, SD-WAN will be deployed at over half (57%) of all VPN sites by 2028, up from 17% in 2021 and doubling the 29% penetration seen in 2023.
It explains that this growth is fuelled by the rapid transition to cloud computing, increased accessibility of enterprise applications from smartphones, the ongoing popularity of remote work options and cost savings.
According to the firm, many early adopters of SD-WAN deployed hybrid networks, where they ran mission-critical traffic on MPLS networks and shifted other traffic to SD-WAN.
It notes that the maturing SD-WAN market then compelled MPLS providers to drop prices significantly over time and the MPLS market declined fairly rapidly for several years.
However, BMIT research found that a number of network operators and enterprises still see value in maintaining MPLS for now, as part of a hybrid SD-WAN solution directing selected traffic via these legacy networks.
The market analyst firm says this is in line with international trends, where analysts estimate VPN site penetration at 45% for MPLS only, but 65% when including hybrid MPLS and SD-WAN sites, with MPLS declining at a 10% compound annual growth rate globally.
Geerdts notes there is growth in spite of the low levels of interoperability between different vendors.
“This means deployments are typically single-vendor, so that changing suppliers or upgrading older systems can be costly.”
He believes that initiatives to promote interoperability will greatly benefit the SD-WAN market.
BMIT states that international vendors such as Fortinet, VMware and Cisco have gained significant local market share, partly due to their being able to cross-sell solutions to existing customers.
However, it says local solution providers have held their own – companies such as Metacom are able to offer competitive in-house solutions based on their understanding of the needs of the local market, while local integrator BCX offers clients a choice of in-house or international options. Local integrators tailor each deployment to specific requirements of different use cases, it adds.
BMIT’s study highlights that security solutions continue to gain importance and need to address ever-increasing complexity and threat levels.
“All SD-WAN solutions are critically linked to managed security, with a zero-trust approach to devices and Secure Access Service Edge increasingly incorporated in cyber security strategy,” concludes Geerdts.
Share