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Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN

30 September 2024 - ID G00803425 - 43 min read

By Jonathan Forest, Karen Brown, and 1 more

The software-defined WAN market is mature, but there is still differentiation between
vendors. Infrastructure and operations leaders responsible for networking should use this
research to identify SD-WAN vendors most aligned with their branch connectivity and
security requirements.

Strategic Planning Assumptions

By 2027, 65% of new SD-WAN purchases will be part of a single-vendor secure access service
edge (SASE) offering, an increase from 20% in 2024.

By 2027, 70% of network operations personnel will rely on generative AI for Day 2 SD-WAN
management, up from less than 5% in early 2024.

Market Definition/Description
This document was republished on 3 October 2024. The document you are viewing is the
corrected version. For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com.

Gartner defines SD-WAN as functionality primarily used to connect branch locations to other
enterprise and cloud locations. SD-WAN products provide dynamic path selection based on
business or application policy, routing, centralized orchestration of policy and management of
appliances, virtual private network (VPN), and zero-touch configuration. SD-WAN products are
WAN transport/carrier-agnostic and create secure paths across physical WAN connections.

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SD-WAN products replace traditional branch routers and enable connectivity between
enterprise branch locations as well as the cloud. They facilitate WAN connectivity’s evolution
from Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-centric to public internet-centric in support of
enterprise traffic shifts from private data centers to public cloud and SaaS.

Mandatory Features
The mandatory features for SD-WAN offerings include:

Functionality:

Ability to replace a branch router (e.g., support for Border Gateway Protocol [BGP])

Application-aware dynamic path selection (e.g., Layer 7 traffic steering) across multiple
physical interfaces

Virtual private network (VPN)

Orchestrator (on-premises or in the cloud) that provides a centralized mechanism for:

Configuration (zero-touch configuration)

Management

Visibility/analytics/troubleshooting

Reporting

Form factor for branch, data center and cloud locations:

Software that can be deployed on a branded hardware appliance or third-party hardware

at a branch, data center or other enterprise location

Software deployed in the public cloud as a virtual instance

Common Features
The common features for SD-WAN offerings include:

Integrated Layer 4 firewall, intrusion detection system (IDS)/intrusion prevention system

(IPS), URL/content filtering and anti-malware

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Software delivered as a virtual network function (VNF), virtual machine (VM) or container

Branded turnkey hardware appliance

API support

Service chaining capabilities (including the ability to integrate with third-party SSE vendors)

Application performance optimization capabilities (e.g., forward error correction [FEC],

packet duplication and SaaS optimization)

Orchestration and integration with cloud service providers to simplify cloud onramp

Advanced on-premises security (e.g., Layer 7 firewalls and data loss prevention [DLP])

Native cloud gateways for service insertion and simplified cloud onramp connectivity

WAN backbone/enhanced internet functionality

WAN optimization (e.g., TCP optimization, caching and deduplication)

Extended orchestration beyond SD-WAN to include wireless LAN (WLAN)/LAN/security to

form SD-Branch

AI/GenAI networking support for configuration management, incident management and

documentation access

Software-only solution deployable on an end-user device for remote users

Magic Quadrant

Figure 1: Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN

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Vendor Strengths and Cautions

Barracuda

Barracuda is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. It offers two SD-WAN products, CloudGen
Firewall and SecureEdge, both with hardware appliances and software with orchestration and
management. CloudGen Firewall is the vendor’s traditional offering, and SecureEdge focuses on
the transition to single-vendor SASE. Gartner estimates that Barracuda has 4,500 enterprise SD-

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WAN customers and operates mainly in North America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa
(EMEA). Its customers tend to be smaller enterprises and small and midsize businesses (SMBs)
in selected verticals.

Over the next 18 months, we expect Barracuda will invest in its dedicated cloud-based analytics
and reporting service, edge compute capabilities, and App connector to extend visibility and
control over application and Internet of Things (IoT) traffic.

Strengths

SMB focus: Barracuda focuses on providing operational simplicity for SMB customers.

Pricing: Barracuda’s pricing is competitive when compared with other vendors in this
research, which should appeal to price-sensitive organizations.

On-premises security: Barracuda’s SD-WAN offering includes strong integrated on-premises

security that is appealing to security-sensitive organizations.

Cautions

Innovation: Barracuda’s planned SD-WAN innovations are unlikely to deliver game-changing

capabilities to the market, as the vendor is more focused on delivering incremental
enhancements.

Market visibility: Barracuda has low SD-WAN market visibility for end users, based on end-
user Gartner interactions, gartner.com searches and social media conversations.

Product: Barracuda’s breadth and depth of SD-WAN features have limited appeal for
organizations with larger, more complex networks, compared with other vendors in this
research. This includes limitations with cloud onramp, partner-integrated cloud security,
small platform flexibility, and routing and application steering when compared with other
vendors in this research.

Broadcom (VMware)

Broadcom (VMware) is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Broadcom is a new entrant into the
market via its acquisition of VMware. The VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN product includes edge
appliances, optional gateway points of presence (POPs), software licenses and a cloud-based
orchestrator. Gartner estimates that Broadcom has 21,000 SD-WAN enterprise customers and
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operates globally, serving clients of all sizes and in all vertical industries, with a go-to-market
focused primarily on service providers.

Over the next 18 months, we expect Broadcom will invest in transport intelligence for fixed
wireless access, comprehensive edge analytics, and the integration of VeloCloud edge
appliances and management with Symantec cloud security as part of its SASE offering.

Strengths

Product: Broadcom has broad and deep SD-WAN product capabilities that address most
current enterprise use cases.

Sales execution/pricing: Broadcom has strong SD-WAN market share, and its pricing is
competitive when compared with other vendors in this research.

Market understanding: The vendor has strong SD-WAN market understanding based on its
enterprise experience and market focus.

Cautions

Market investment: The vendor’s expected investment growth in the SD-WAN market is lower
than other vendors in this research, which may limit the vendor’s ability to keep up with
market developments.

Customer experience: The vendor’s customer experience is below average when compared
with other vendors in this research, based primarily on end-user Gartner client interactions.
Gartner clients also express concerns about potential impacts from Broadcom’s acquisition
of VMware.

Product strategy: Broadcom’s SD-WAN product roadmap includes more narrow and catch-
up capabilities, such as fixed wireless access and cloud-based security, when compared with
other vendors in this research.

Cisco

Cisco is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its offerings include Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and Cisco
Meraki SD-WAN that provide SD-WAN appliances with additional advanced integrated security,
licensed software, and the requisite management and orchestration. Catalyst SD-WAN typically
is marketed to customers with more advanced requirements, whereas Meraki is typically
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marketed to customers that prioritize ease of use. Gartner estimates that Cisco has 55,000 SD-
WAN enterprise customers. The vendor operates globally, serving clients of all sizes and
verticals.

Over the next 18 months, we expect Cisco will invest in its AI assistant, integrate its SD-WAN
offerings with Cisco XDR and deliver distributed security policy enforcement, regardless of the
appliance deployed. Furthermore, we expect the vendor to integrate Splunk with Cisco SD-WAN
and extend segment-based routing to the enterprise.

Strengths

Sales execution: Cisco has robust global sales channels with a strong market share.

Product strategy: Cisco’s SD-WAN product roadmap is aligned with end-user organization
needs, focusing on its AI assistant as well as security and networking integration.

Marketing execution: Cisco has high SD-WAN market visibility for end users and overall
strong marketing execution.

Cautions

Customer experience: Cisco has below-average customer experience compared with other
vendors in this research, based primarily on end-user Gartner client interactions.

Marketing strategy: Cisco’s go-forward marketing strategy is less specific to the SD-WAN
market and unlikely to change buyer behavior.

Vertical/industry strategy: Cisco has more of a horizontal strategy than a vertical/industry

strategy, which may result in overlooking some specific customer needs.

Ericsson (Cradlepoint)

Ericsson (Cradlepoint) is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Ericsson’s offerings under its
Cradlepoint division (Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions as of 12 September 2024) are the
Ericsson NetCloud service, Ericsson Cradlepoint E Series SD-WAN routers and Ericsson
NetCloud Exchange Service Gateways, and licensed software focusing on cellular wireless WAN
use cases. Gartner estimates that Ericsson has 7,500 enterprise SD-WAN customers, with
operations primarily in North America, Europe and the Asia/Pacific region, focusing on cellular
wireless WAN use cases in specific verticals such as retail, transportation and public safety.
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Over the next 18 months, we expect Ericsson (Cradlepoint) will invest in microtunnel integration
into SD-WAN to improve performance, integration of user attributes via SIM into SD-WAN and
enhanced AIOps capabilities.

Strengths

Cellular wireless focus: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has a primary focus of developing and selling
cellular wireless WAN solutions to end users.

Vertical/industry strategy: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has a strong vertical/industry focus on use

cases specific in retail, transportation and public safety.

Sales strategy: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has a focused sales strategy to reach organizations
that are consistent with its target market, which will improve its chances to grow.

Cautions

Innovation: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has a narrow cellular-centric innovation roadmap, focused

on microtunnel integration into SD-WAN to improve performance and integration of user
attributes via SIM into SD-WAN, which has limited chance to change buyer behavior.

Pricing: Based on Gartner analysis and Gartner Peer Insights, Ericsson (Cradlepoint),
compared with other vendors in this research, has higher pricing, which is less appealing to
price-sensitive organizations.

Marketing execution: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has below-average marketing execution,

compared with other vendors in this research, resulting in low SD-WAN market visibility for
end users.

Fortinet

Fortinet is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. The Fortinet Secure SD-WAN product includes
FortiGate physical and virtual appliances with on-premises security software licenses managed
via the FortiManager orchestrator. Gartner estimates that Fortinet has 40,000 SD-WAN
enterprise customers and operates globally, addressing customers across most verticals and
company sizes.

Over the next 18 months, we expect the vendor will invest in digital experience monitoring
(DEM) for deeper end-user experience and application performance visibility, machine learning
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with adaptive network performance thresholds, and its generative AI (GenAI) assistant.

Strengths

Sales execution/pricing: Fortinet has strong SD-WAN market share, robust channels and
competitive pricing, which is appealing to many organizations.

Product strategy: Fortinet’s SD-WAN product roadmap is aligned with end-user organization
needs, focusing on GenAI, machine learning and DEM enhancements.

Customer experience: Fortinet has strong customer experience, compared with other
vendors in this research, based on Gartner end-user client interactions and Gartner Peer
Insights’ customer feedback.

Cautions

Networking capabilities: Some large global clients question Fortinet’s ability to meet the
requirements of large complex enterprise WAN configurations, topologies and architectures.

Security service edge (SSE) integrations: Fortinet has limited integrations with third-party
SSE vendors, which reduces enterprise choice when deploying a dual-vendor SASE
architecture.

Sales strategy: Fortinet’s sales strategy is limited and more tactical, focusing more on
internal efficiencies rather than enhancing how it reaches enterprise customers.

HPE

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its SD-WAN offerings
include HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN (with optional WAN optimization) and
HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-Branch, both of which include physical and virtual
appliances, as well as software licenses with management and orchestration. Both products are
managed through the HPE Aruba Networking Central platform. Gartner estimates that HPE has
6,000 SD-WAN enterprise customers across both products, with global operations addressing
clients of all sizes and verticals.

Over the next 18 months, we expect the vendor will invest in a lighter-weight SD-WAN offering
and LocalEdge to deliver policy enforcement at the edge as part of its SASE offering. Other
likely investments include AI-powered insights routing and policy decisions.
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HPE announced its intention to acquire Juniper Networks on 9 January 2024. At the time of this
evaluation, however, HPE and Juniper operate as separate entities. Gartner will provide further
insight as more details become available.

Strengths

Product: HPE has strong performance optimization, cloud onramp, partner-integrated

security and operational capabilities that are aligned with current SD-WAN market needs.

Marketing execution: Compared with other vendors in this research, HPE demonstrates
above-average marketing execution, based on its marketing message and value proposition,
resulting in solid SD-WAN market visibility for end users.

Sales strategy: HPE has above-average expected future sales investment and plans to
simplify its pricing model.

Cautions

Customer experience: Based primarily on Gartner end-user interactions, HPE has below-
average customer experience compared with other vendors in this research.

Multiple SD-WAN products: HPE has multiple SD-WAN products that address different use
cases. This may result in customer or prospect confusion and introduce the risk of selecting
the wrong offering.

Vertical/industry strategy: HPE employs more of a horizontal strategy than a

vertical/industry strategy, which may result in overlooking some specific customer needs.

Huawei

Huawei is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. Huawei’s SD-WAN solution includes the
NetEngine AR Series physical and virtual routers and software licenses, as well as the iMaster
NCE-Campus controller. Huawei also has the USG firewall offering that addresses security-
specific use cases. Gartner estimates that Huawei has 38,000 SD-WAN enterprise customers.
Huawei focuses on China and select countries in the Asia/Pacific region, EMEA and Latin
American regions, serving customers of all sizes and verticals.

Over the next 18 months, we expect Huawei will invest in its AI assistant, multiservice
converged customer premises equipment (CPE) for 5G and Wi-Fi 7, and optimization for
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asymmetrical deployments with CPE on only one side of the connection.

Strengths

Sales execution/pricing: When compared with other vendors in this research, Huawei’s sales
execution is driven by a robust channel and lower pricing, which is attractive for price-
sensitive organizations.

Viability: Huawei has strong viability, based on its financial metrics and expected future
investment.

SD-branch capabilities: Huawei’s focus on integrated wireless LAN (WLAN), LAN, SD-WAN
and security offers customers a simplified, unified end-user experience.

Cautions

Market presence: Due to geopolitical issues, Huawei does not serve organizations in the
U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and India. The vendor has limited market awareness outside
the Asia/Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa regions, which limits its ability to
grow.

Product strategy: Huawei’s SD-WAN product roadmap is not as future-looking, with focus on
converged CPE for 5G and Wi-Fi 7, as well as optimization for asymmetrical CPE
deployments, which are not as aligned with future expected broad end-user needs.

Marketing execution: Huawei’s SD-WAN marketing message and ability to market its
capabilities are below average when compared with other vendors in this research.

Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks is a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant. It offers Juniper AI-driven SD-WAN,
which includes the Juniper Session Smart Router, Session Smart Networking Software, Juniper
Mist WAN Assurance and Marvis Virtual Network Assistant. It also offers the SRX Series Firewall
for specific security use cases. Its full-stack offering integrates SD-WAN, LAN, WLAN and
security into a common orchestration. Gartner estimates Juniper has 4,000 SD-WAN enterprise
customers and focuses its operations in the North American, EMEA and Asia/Pacific regions.
The vendor addresses companies of all sizes in most verticals.

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Over the next 18 months, we expect Juniper Networks will invest in automated policy
management, WAN autotuning and new hardware models with increased port density.

HPE announced its intention to acquire Juniper Networks on 9 January 2024. At the time of this
evaluation, however, HPE and Juniper operate as separate entities. Gartner will provide further
insight as more details become available.

Strengths

Innovation: Juniper Networks’ recent and planned innovations in AI networking have started
to change SD-WAN buyer behavior.

SD-branch functionality: Juniper Networks’ focus on integrated WLAN, LAN, SD-WAN and
security offers customers a simplified, unified end-user experience.

Customer experience: Juniper Networks has above-average customer experience, based on

Gartner SD-WAN end-user client interactions and evidence from Gartner Peer Insights
respondents.

Cautions

Sales execution: Juniper Networks has narrow SD-WAN sales channels, which has limited its
SD-WAN market share.

Marketing execution: Juniper Networks has below-average SD-WAN market visibility and
awareness, compared with other vendors in this research, in part based on Gartner end-user
clients rarely asking about the vendor.

Geographic strategy: Juniper Networks’ geographic strategy is more narrow, when

compared with other vendors in this research, limiting how it reaches regional end-user
buyers.

Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its leading offering is Prisma SD-WAN,
which includes Instant-On Network (ION) edge appliances and is managed via Strata Cloud
Manager. It also offers the PAN-OS branch firewall with limited SD-WAN capabilities as an
upgrade option for existing next-generation firewall (NGFW) customers, although it is a separate

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product from Prisma SD-WAN. Gartner estimates the vendor has 4,000 SD-WAN enterprise
customers and operates globally, focusing on enterprises in all vertical industries and sizes.

Over the next 18 months, we expect Palo Alto Networks will invest in application acceleration,
Prisma SD-WAN on-premises security, and management integration between PAN-OS and
Prisma SD-WAN.

Strengths

Sales strategy: Compared with other vendors in this research, Palo Alto Networks has an
above-average sales strategy as part of its broader go-to-market to expand its reach and
more effectively target end-user customers.

Market understanding: Palo Alto Networks has demonstrated a strong understanding of

current and future customer requirements, such as single-vendor SASE, when compared
with other vendors in this research.

Market responsiveness: Palo Alto Networks has a history of solid market response, such as
the transition to SASE, to address market needs in the context of the broader competitive
environment.

Cautions

Pricing: Based on end-user Gartner client interactions, Palo Alto Networks has high SD-WAN
pricing, which limits its market adoption and impacts infrastructure and operations (I&O)
budgets.

Customer experience: Palo Alto Networks has below-average customer experience,

compared with other vendors in this research, based on Gartner end-user client interactions
and evidence from Gartner Peer Insights respondents.

Multiple SD-WAN products: Palo Alto Networks offers two SD-WAN products, which creates
market confusion. Customers must choose between a strong on-premises security offering
with limited SD-WAN functionality and a strong SD-WAN offering with limited on-premises
security functionality.

Peplink

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Peplink is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. It has two product families in this market:
Balance for enterprise branch SD-WAN and MAX for industry and mobility SD-WAN
requirements. Both offerings include SpeedFusion software technology and InControl 2
orchestration for management. Gartner estimates that Peplink has 7,000 SD-WAN enterprise
customers across both products and operates globally, focusing on midmarket organizations,
with specific verticals targeting cellular wireless WAN use cases.

Over the next 18 months, we expect the vendor will invest in its Peplink connectivity controller
to improve application performance and manage third-party devices, FIPS 140-2 certification
and encryption, and AI to provide advanced predictive performance tuning.

Strengths

Viability: Peplink has strong viability, based on strong company financials as well as above-
average expected investment growth going forward, which increases its chance for future
expansion.

Geographic strategy: Peplink scored above-average for its geographic strategy due to its
focus on expanding its presence in Asia/Pacific and Japan.

Pricing: Compared with other vendors in this research, Peplink’s pricing is competitive,
which appeals to cost-conscious organizations with more basic requirements.

Cautions

Innovation: Peplink has a narrow innovation roadmap, focused on managing third-party

network devices and performance tuning of cellular links, which has limited chance to
change buyer behavior.

Product: Peplink’s product is not well-aligned with broader current and future enterprise SD-
WAN buyer requirements when compared with other vendors in this research.

Market visibility: Peplink has low SD-WAN market visibility and is viewed primarily as a
vendor providing cellular wireless WAN solutions, which has limited appeal to the broader
market.

Versa Networks

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Versa Networks is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. It has two offerings: the primary one is Versa
Secure SD-WAN that addresses the broadest set of use cases. The second offering is Versa
Titan, which is built on the same platform as Versa Secure SD-WAN and is delivered as a cloud-
based offering for more simplified use cases. Both include Versa’s Cloud Services Gateway
appliances or virtual appliances, software licenses and orchestration. Gartner estimates that
Versa Networks has 20,000 SD-WAN enterprise customers across both products and operates
globally, addressing clients of all sizes and in all vertical industries, primarily through service
providers.

Over the next 18 months, we expect the vendor will invest in multicloud connectivity, Versa
AIEdge to support local GenAI inference models, and sovereign SASE to enhance its visibility
and observability analytics and deliver its self-protecting network built on VersaAI.

Strengths

Product: Versa Networks provides a fully capable SD-WAN offering with strong routing and
application steering, on-premises security, and deployment flexibility functions.

Product strategy: Compared with other vendors in this research, Versa Networks has an
above-average SD-WAN product strategy with a focus on multicloud connectivity and AI
networking that is aligned with current and future end-user needs.

Customer experience: Versa Networks has above-average customer experience compared

with other vendors in this research, based primarily on Gartner end-user client interactions.

Cautions

Pricing: Versa Networks has higher-than-average pricing for Secure SD-WAN, based on
Gartner analyst assessment and Gartner Peer Insights data. The higher pricing makes the
offering less appealing to cost-conscious buyers who have basic requirements.

Vertical/industry strategy: Versa Networks employs more of a horizontal strategy than a

vertical/industry strategy, which may result in overlooking some specific customer needs.

Multiple SD-WAN products: The vendor offers two SD-WAN products with different
capabilities, so there is a risk of selecting the wrong product for a specific customer need,
especially if the need changes over time.

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Vendors Added and Dropped

We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants as markets change. As a result
of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant may change over time. A
vendor's appearance in a Magic Quadrant one year and not the next does not necessarily
indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. It may be a reflection of a change in
the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or of a change of focus by that vendor.

Added
Broadcom was added as a result of its acquisition of VMware.

Dropped
Forcepoint was dropped because it focuses mainly on the single-vendor SASE market.

Nuage Networks was dropped because it announced its intention to exit the market in late
2023.

Sophos was dropped because it focuses mainly on the firewall market.

VMware was dropped due to being acquired by Broadcom.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

For Gartner clients, Magic Quadrant research identifies and then analyzes the most relevant
providers and their products in a market. Gartner uses, by default, an upper limit of 20
providers to support the identification of the most relevant providers in a market. The inclusion
criteria represent the specific attributes that analysts believe are necessary for inclusion in this
research.

To qualify for inclusion, providers need to show relevance to Gartner clients by:

Providing products/services that address the enterprise SD-WAN requirements outlined in

the Market Definition/Description section.

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Producing and releasing enterprise SD-WAN products for general availability as of 14 June
2024. All components must be publicly available, be shipping and be included on the
vendors’ published price list as of this date. Products shipping after this date, and any
publicly available marketing information, may only have an influence on the Completeness of
Vision axis.

Providing commercial support and maintenance for their enterprise SD-WAN products (24/7)
to support deployments on multiple continents. This includes hardware/software support,
access to software upgrades, security patches, and troubleshooting and technical
assistance.

Actively investing in the SD-WAN market.

Actively promoting and marketing their SD-WAN solution to enterprises.

Exposing full granular management and administration capabilities directly to customers to

support a DIY model.

Commonly selling their solutions as stand-alone SD-WAN offerings.

Product Capabilities

Vendors must have generally available products that support all of the following capabilities:

The ability to operate as the branch office router (including eBGP, OSPF, support hub and
spoke, full mesh, and partial mesh topologies with automation for a minimum of a 250-
site network) with traffic shaping and/or quality of service (QoS)

Centralized management/orchestration and automation for devices (with GUI), including

reporting, troubleshooting, configuration changes and software upgrades

Zero-touch configuration

IPsec VPN (Advanced Encryption Standard [AES] 256-bit encryption) with integrated
firewall

Application-aware path selection based on business or application policy (not limited to

only DiffServ Code Point [DSCP]/ports, IP addresses/circuits or 5-tuple) that responds to

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network conditions (e.g., changes in packet loss, latency or jitter) in an active/active

configuration

Autodiscover at least 200 well-known application profiles

Visibility of application performance data of traffic delivered across the WAN (e.g., packet
loss, latency or jitter)

Demonstrated integration with at least one third-party cloud security solution (third-party
SSE vendor)

Ability to completely support a do-it-yourself (DIY) customer by exposing full granular

management and administration capabilities

Software that can be deployed in at least two cloud providers (such as Amazon Web
Services [AWS] and Microsoft Azure)
Business/Financial Performance

Vendors must show relevance to Gartner’s enterprise clients by meeting the following with their
SD-WAN solution(s) that meet the product capabilities inclusion criteria (from above):

Must have a product assessed in at least three of the five use cases identified in Critical
Capabilities for SD-WAN.

Meet either of the following criteria:

At least 60,000 SD-WAN enterprise* sites** deployed and under active support contracts

At least 1,200 SD-WAN enterprise* customers*** deployed and under active support
contracts

Demonstrate baseline scalability and customer adoption by servicing at least 60 enterprise*

customers*** with active support contracts that have at least 100 sites each.

Show relevance to Gartner’s enterprise* clients on a global basis with at least 150 SD-WAN
enterprise* customers*** under active support contracts and headquartered in three or more
of the following geographic regions: North America, South America, EMEA or
Asia/Pacific. This means 150 enterprise* customers*** with headquarters in one region and

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another 150 enterprise* customers*** each with headquarters in two other different region
for a total of at least 450 enterprise* customers*** between the three regions.

Rank among the top 20 vendors in the Customer Interest Indicator (CII) defined by Gartner
for this Magic Quadrant. Data inputs used to calculate SD-WAN CII included a balanced set
of measures:

Gartner end-user inquiry volume

Vendor mentions in Peer Insights as competitor

Social media followers

Gartner search

Google Trends: search interest

Web traffic analytics

* Enterprise is defined as an organization with at least $50 million in revenue and/or 100
employees. It can be a private for-profit organization or not-for-profit entities such as charitable
organizations, government and education institutions.

** Sites are defined as organization locations of customers.

*** Customers are entities paying for an SD-WAN solution under active support contracts with
features defined in the product inclusion criteria section. This excludes trials, proofs of concept
(POCs), paid pilots, “try and buys,” lab trials, etc.

Honorable Mentions

Aryaka has relevant technology and is investing in the SD-WAN market, but it did not meet the
inclusion criteria as of the research cutoff date. The vendor goes to market primarily as a
managed network service provider.

Cato Networks has relevant technology and is investing in this market, but it did not meet the
inclusion criteria as of the research cutoff date. The vendor goes to market primarily as a single-
vendor SASE vendor.

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Check Point Software Technologies has relevant technology and is investing in this market, but
it did not meet the inclusion criteria as of the research cutoff date. The vendor goes to market
primarily as a security vendor.

Cloudflare has relevant technology and is investing in this market, but it did not meet the
inclusion criteria as of the research cutoff date. The vendor goes to market primarily as a single-
vendor SASE vendor.

Forcepoint has relevant technology and is investing in this market, but it did not meet the
inclusion criteria as of the research cutoff date. The vendor goes to market primarily as a single-
vendor SASE vendor.

Netskope has relevant technology and is investing in this market, but it did not meet the
inclusion criteria as of the research cutoff date. The vendor goes to market primarily as a single-
vendor SASE vendor.

Sophos has relevant technology and is investing in this market, but it did not meet the inclusion
criteria as of the research cutoff date. The vendor goes to market primarily as an NGFW vendor.

Zscaler has relevant technology and is investing in this market, but it did not meet the inclusion
criteria as of the research cutoff date. The vendor goes to market primarily as a single-vendor
SASE vendor.

Evaluation Criteria

Ability to Execute

Product or Service: This evaluates vendors by looking at their overall SD-WAN networking
portfolios across the following capabilities:

Routing and application steering

On-premises security (local)

Partner-integrated cloud security

Performance optimization
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Operational capabilities

Deployment flexibility

Small platform flexibility

Scalability

Cloud onramp
We also evaluate the completeness of the vendor’s product roadmap(s) in addressing common
enterprise use cases.

Overall Viability: We evaluate various financial metrics reflecting the organization’s financial
health. We also assess the vendor’s intention and ability to invest in various business unit
functions.

Sales Execution/Pricing: The first aspect evaluates sales effectiveness and go-to-market
activities, along with depth and breadth of sales channels. The second aspect includes our
evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of the solutions for purchase and support over their useful
life, and the ability to recognize and position the most appropriate solution in specific sales
situations. We weight these aspects roughly the same in our analysis.

Market Responsiveness/Record: This assesses the vendor’s track record in delivering new
capabilities when the market needs them on time with the right scope. It also considers the
vendor’s history of responsiveness in terms of changing market demands and addressing
limitations. This evaluation is not limited to products as it also involves pricing, operating
models, go-to-market and overall competitive dynamics.

Marketing Execution: This focuses on how the vendor is perceived in the market, and how well
its marketing programs are recognized. The evaluation focuses on how well the vendor is able
to influence and shape perception in the market through marketing activities and thought
leadership that drives awareness. An additional indicator for this criterion is how often Gartner
clients inquire about a specific vendor in terms of capabilities/reputation or in a shortlist
evaluation process.

Customer Experience: This looks at all aspects of the customer experience inclusive of pricing,
presales, postsales support and product features that meet customer expectations. This

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criterion includes the customer’s experience with the vendor’s SD-WAN products and services
used in their production environments. It also includes the ability to upgrade software and work
with technical support to solve problems. Hardware and software quality and how existing
customers describe their experience with the vendor’s products are also evaluated.
Additionally, we assess customer satisfaction, customer loyalty/retention, brand reputation and
advocacy, operational quality, and employee engagement.

Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Product or Service High

Overall Viability Low

Sales Execution/Pricing High

Market Responsiveness/Record Low

Marketing Execution Medium

Customer Experience High

Operations NotRated

Source: Gartner (September 2024)

Completeness of Vision

Market Understanding: This assesses the vendor’s ability to look into the future to drive new
ideas into product roadmaps and offerings, taking into account market needs, competitor
strengths/weaknesses, and identifying new competitors and vendor core competencies. It also

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involves vendor self-reflection to determine gaps as well as strengths and weaknesses in

addressing its target markets. This may include, but isn’t limited to, specific functionality
required such as simplifying operations, enhancing application performance, providing robust
security, enhancing connectivity to the cloud, reaching and attracting end customers, and
introducing new pricing models.

Marketing Strategy: This evaluates the ability of the vendor to influence the market through its
messaging and marketing campaigns. It includes the extent to which the vendor articulates a
forward-looking marketing message that is clear, consistent, relevant and differentiated, as well
as aligned with future end-user needs. We look for new and effective ways vendors reach
customers and evolving customer buyer personas, and how they plan to communicate their
message to drive market demand.

Sales Strategy: This evaluates the vendor’s current and proposed use of direct and indirect
sales to extend the scope and depth of its market reach. Further, this includes the extent to
which the vendor articulates a clear, consistent, relevant and differentiated sales strategy that
engages with defined customer profiles and buyer personas. It includes development of
effective go-to-market strategies, alliances and partnerships, leveraging value-added resellers
(VARs), systems integrators (SIs), ISP aggregators, master agents, network service providers
(NSPs), managed network service providers and OEM resellers, as appropriate. In addition, it
includes how the vendor leverages new pricing, consumption and business models that are
emerging due to market and technology transitions.

Offering (Product) Strategy: This evaluates the vendor’s product roadmap around existing and
future SD-WAN functions. This also includes not just the raw features and capabilities, but also
the vendor’s overall architecture across the portfolio, the uniqueness of the capabilities and the
value to the end customer. We evaluate product strategy in terms of various capabilities,
including (but not limited to) simplicity, automation, cloud connectivity/cloud onramp, visibility,
AI networking, application performance, security and adjacent product integrations. This also
includes multiple products that may exist within a vendor’s portfolio.

Vertical/Industry Strategy: This measures the vendor’s strategy and go-forward plans to
address the unique requirements of particular verticals/industries and employ the associated
sales channels, messaging and product features to build a sustainable business advantage.

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Innovation: This evaluates the plans to bring future differentiated capabilities to market that will
enhance the vendor’s ability to attract customers and drive business. We assess the vendor’s
ability to add value to customers in new, unique ways and/or to solve existing challenges more
effectively. Innovation is not simply a list of new features/functionality or product
improvements. Instead, it is the ability to bring capabilities to the market that dramatically alter
or shift the conversation among buyers. True innovation often changes the “tenor” of a market
in terms of customer interest in a vendor. Innovation can be created across multiple areas,
including product, packaging, pricing, sales, marketing, models and use cases supported.

Geographic Strategy: This measures the vendor’s ability to address any unique requirements of
particular geographies and employ the associated messaging, partnerships and product
features, as well as sales channels to build a sustainable business advantage.

Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Market Understanding Low

Marketing Strategy Low

Sales Strategy Medium

Offering (Product) Strategy High

Business Model NotRated

Vertical/Industry Strategy Low

Innovation High

Geographic Strategy Medium

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Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Source: Gartner (September 2024)

Quadrant Descriptions

Leaders
A Leader has demonstrated a sustained ability to address changing end-user requirements in
the SD-WAN market as well as long-term viability. A Leader can drive, shape and transform the
market in areas such as AI networking or security as well as maintain strong relationships with
its channels and customers. Leaders typically have solid products that address most use cases
across various verticals globally, maintain high visibility among Gartner clients and demonstrate
success while at the same time innovating to drive the market forward.

Challengers
A Challenger has demonstrated sustained execution in the SD-WAN market and has clear, long-
term viability in the market. Typically, Challengers have solid products that address most use
cases across multiple verticals in various geographies. However, a Challenger has not shown
the ability to lead and innovate, and Gartner doesn’t expect the vendor to be able to drive,
shape and transform the market going forward.

Visionaries
A Visionary has strong potential to drive and shape the market going forward in some key areas
of SD-WAN, such as AI networking, security or pricing. Visionaries often help transform the
market — from driving new ideas/innovations, including new business models, to solving
enterprise challenges. Although Visionaries often transform the market, they typically lack
market share, viability, global coverage and/or complete product capabilities to address most
use cases.

Niche Players
A Niche Player has a complete or near-complete SD-WAN product offering, but is more focused,
such as on geographic reach or vertical market concentration, typically resulting in limited

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market share or limited addressable use cases. Niche Players have a viable product offering, but
they have not shown the ability to transform the market or sustain execution.

Context
The SD-WAN market is mature. The supply side remains a crowded, fragmented vendor
landscape, with large established vendors and smaller providers from multiple segments
competing for market share. Some vendors have exited this market (Citrix, Oracle, Nuage
Networks and Riverbed) over the last few years. Gartner expects significant aspects of the SD-
WAN market to evolve into the single-vendor SASE market (see Magic Quadrant for Single-
Vendor SASE), with integrated network security (SSE) delivered from the cloud.

Convergence of Networking and Security

Today, we primarily see SD-WAN and SSE offerings being integrated and deployed as dual-
vendor SASE. This is largely driven by the move to distribute internet access to support cloud
applications and change the security perimeter. This trend is further aligned with the
deployment of SD-WAN at branch locations to manage the internet transport. As part of a desire
to minimize branch sprawl and support access to the cloud, more organizations are looking for
integrated cloud-delivered security and thin branch SD-WAN solutions (see 2024 Strategic
Roadmap for SASE Convergence). Dual-vendor SASE is more popular in the near term since
there is a significant deployment of either existing SD-WAN or SSE. Oftentimes, a different
vendor is chosen from the original deployment to complete the solution (adding SD-WAN or
SSE when the other is already deployed), since few vendors currently offer complete single-
vendor SASE solutions.

Single-Vendor SASE
As the single-vendor SASE market matures, the capabilities gap will likely close with best-of-
breed dual-vendor SASE architectures (one vendor for SD-WAN and another vendor for SSE). We
also expect organizations to consolidate networking and network security roles, which will drive
the purchase of a single offering. Furthermore, we envision new pricing models as SD-WAN and
network security offerings converge to more of a per-user model. It will simplify sourcing and
offer a tighter technical integration, ultimately offering a better user experience.

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Beyond single-vendor SASE, there are other technologies/markets converging.

Convergence of Adjacent Technologies

Applications were primarily hosted in the data center, and the organization had control over the
data center. As more applications move to the cloud (SaaS, infrastructure as a service [IaaS]
and platform as a service [PaaS]), organizations have less control. To drive more control, we
have identified five adjacent capabilities that we envision converging with SD-WAN to achieve
end-to-end client-to-workload security, performance, visibility and manageability:

SSE (see Magic Quadrant for Security Service Edge).

Enhanced internet/integrated WAN backbone (see Include Enhanced Internet as a Viable

Option for the Global SD-WAN Backbone).

Cloud onramp: A set of technologies to simplify connecting to cloud workloads.

Multicloud networking software (see Market Guide for Multicloud Networking Software).

Campus networking/SD-branch: It offers simplicity in managing LAN, WLAN, WAN and

network security policies and profiles with a single orchestrated solution.

AI Networking
AI and more specifically, GenAI, is increasingly being included in SD-WAN operational
capabilities across Day 0, Day 1 and Day 2 life cycle management (see Prepare for Generative AI
in Network Operations). We also see AI assistants to help simplify interaction with the network
and provide a more dynamic management environment. The objective is to reduce operating
expenditures (opex), increase speed/agility and improve uptime/end-user performance. This
may result in accelerated time from design to configuration, less trouble tickets, less time to
resolve trouble tickets, etc. Although it is still early in many vendors’ product development, we
are seeing this functionality incorporated into an increasing number of vendor solutions
offering differentiation. We expect these capabilities to improve over the next 18 months. The
longer-term challenge will be defining the business case and ensuring customer trust in using
such solutions.

Coffee Shop Networking

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Hybrid work in a post-COVID-19-pandemic world has distributed users in a “work from

anywhere” model. Organizations are interested in a “hoteling model,” where users are in the
office only part time, leveraging coffee shop networking (see Note 1) and accessing applications
that are primarily in the cloud. With less people working in the office full time and an increase in
the number of remote and branch-of-one users, there is less need for full-featured SD-WAN
functionality. We estimate that approximately 10% to 20% of enterprise sites are interested in
this type of solution. In this scenario, no SD-WAN or, more likely, lighter-weight SD-WAN
functionality, is often the desired choice (see Is SD-WAN Dead?).

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) Integration

Gartner observes more SD-WAN vendors integrating native DEM solutions with their SD-WAN
offerings to provide visibility to the end-user level to ensure application performance. In many
cases, the current solutions offer more passive visibility. We do envision that they will
increasingly be part of a closed-loop system to offer recommendations to fix problems
proactively for end users.

Market Overview
There is increasing separation from the top vendors in this space, as we estimate that the top
seven vendors make up approximately two-thirds of the market (see Market Share: Enterprise
Network Equipment by Market Segment, Worldwide, 2Q24). The SD-WAN market is forecast to
generate a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16% in end-user spending from 2023
through 2028 (see Forecast: Enterprise Network Equipment by Market Segment, Worldwide
2022-2028, 3Q24 Update). This is based on a current SD-WAN market penetration of
approximately 65% in 2024.

Market Drivers
The SD-WAN market is driven primarily by the following factors:

Refresh of existing branch-office router equipment (or first-generation SD-WAN equipment)

that is at the end of support or lacks the desired capabilities.

Renewal of NSP or managed service contracts, where a new service provider also means
new equipment. This can drive the move off of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) in favor
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of internet access to the branch, with security perimeter changes that typically drive new
solutions.

Application rollouts with changing traffic patterns resulting from increased use of cloud and
multicloud resources that render the traditional hub-and-spoke from remote branch to on-
premises data center WAN architecture obsolete.

The desire to increase scalability, agility and automation to address the needs of digital
business transformation and reduce opex.

The desire to consolidate more than one branch function, such as SD-WAN and security (e.g.,
SASE, zero trust) or SD-WAN and WLAN/LAN (e.g., SD-branch).

Lightweight SD-WAN solutions with less simultaneous users in the office and applications
mainly in the cloud.
Vendor Differentiation
Differentiation is mostly based on:

Feature-based — This includes, for example, AI networking, cloud onramp, ease of use,
security, scale or performance optimization.

Go to market — Vendors can focus by selling through a small number of large service
providers, or focus on a large number of channel partners. Some focus more on DIY and
others more on managed network services, while others are more balanced between the
two. Still others are focused more on network as a service (NaaS)-based opex options over
traditional capital expenditure (capex) pricing models.

Vertical focus — These are vendors that focus on specific verticals, such as retail, financial,
and state and local government, based on specific use cases and product focus.

Geographical focus — These vendors focus on specific geographies where they can
compete most effectively based on where they have resources, channels and unique
product capabilities to meet the requirements of end users.

Vendor Landscape Changes

The SD-WAN market has dozens of suppliers, but few pure-play vendors remain. Most vendors
deliver their solution as part of an NGFW and/or are moving toward a single-vendor SASE

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solution. Multiple SSE vendors have added SD-WAN to their product portfolio within the last 12
months to compete for single-vendor SASE or differentiate among SSE competitors. As a result,
we view the opportunity for stand-alone SD-WAN solutions is limited going forward (see Is SD-
WAN Dead?).

Acquisitions are likely to continue primarily around SD-WAN and network security vendors
consolidating to form single-vendor SASE. We also have observed some vendors exiting this
market over the last few years (Nuage Networks, Oracle, Riverbed and Citrix). For SD-WAN
vendors to have long-term market relevancy, they need to have a SASE strategy as SD-WAN
evolves to more of a feature.

Recent activity in the last year in this market includes Broadcom buying VMware and HPE
announcing its intention to buy Juniper Networks, as well as Zscaler and Cloudflare adding SD-
WAN functionality to their solutions.

Market Recommendations
I&O leaders responsible for building and managing WANs should:

Build a WAN architecture that aligns with end users, branches and applications. This may
mean a hybrid WAN with MPLS and internet, or internet only with dual internet. The
architecture choice depends on how many on-premises workloads versus cloud workloads
exist, the types of applications, the number of users at a site and the locations of end users.

Determine — especially if you’re a cloud-first organization that heavily uses public cloud and
SaaS services — the SD-WAN offering suitability by validating depth and/or breadth of cloud
provider and cloud onramp integrations.

Lean toward SD-WAN/SSE combinations with deep explicit integration when implementing a
dual-vendor SASE architecture by performing a POC and focusing on the GUI integration as
well as automatic traffic redirection.

Evaluate SD-WAN vendors by analyzing network automation and AI networking capabilities

as a core requirement to improve support efficiency if your organization is operationally
focused.

Choose SD-WAN vendors to optimize application performance by evaluating performance

optimization capabilities for real-time and non-real-time traffic and SaaS optimization for
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applications in the cloud.

Focus on lightweight SD-WAN solutions when there are distributed hybrid work users and
applications primarily in the cloud.

Quantify the total cost of hardware, software and maintenance for an SD-WAN deployment.
SD-WAN solutions more commonly have opex-friendly business models, with a strong shift
from upfront capex to annual license subscriptions. To perform a proper evaluation and
comparison, quotes should include all platform, license and support costs over a three-year
baseline.

Prefer SD-branch solutions to simplify the management of LAN, WLAN, SD-WAN and security
for small branch offices.

Evidence

Note 1: Coffee Shop Networking

“Coffee shop networking” is a combination of technologies that enables a simplified and

consistent employee experience regardless of the employee’s location. The user experience is:
grab a seat, connect, work from anywhere. The same experience applies whether the employee
is in the office, at a coffee shop or working from home. Enterprises typically refer to “coffee
shop networking” in the context of simplifying their branch-office networks.

Evaluation Criteria Definitions

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