Aryaka WAN Report: Increasing Applications, Locations Drive Complexity
Enterprises need their applications to perform at a higher level.
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Investment
The study revealed the pandemic's clear impact on network investment.
Aryaka found that 17% of respondents planned on refreshing their network to support SD-WAN or SASE in 2021. On the other hand, 29% of customers indicated similar plans in 2020. This data lines up well with observations from Dell'Oro Group, which found that COVID-10 significantly hampered short-term SD-WAN growth last year.
But the report found growth in other areas. Nearly one in four (22%) companies plan to upgrade their remote access, while 21% are going to invest in their security. Most notably, 31% of companies are investing in their VPNs, compared to 27% last year.
Post-Pandemic Plans
Respondents supported the idea of a hybrid workforce. For 59% of them, the plan is to keep between one-quarter and one-half of workers at home. Furthermore, 21% of companies will roll with more than one-half of their team at home.
As a result, companies need to invest. Nearly half (44%) of respondents said they are working to technologically enable a hybrid workforce. Two in three (63%) said dynamic bandwidth reallocation is very important to their business.
Applications Increase
Aryaka's last three WAN reports show a steadily increasing number of applications that enterprises use. The 500-1,000 range, in particular, has consistently ticked up in the last three years.
Moreover, SaaS adoption is rising. In 2019, only 14% of companies reported using more than 20 distinct SaaS applications. That number increased to 24% in 2020 and now stands at 33% in 2021. Microsoft 365 was the most popular, followed by Google Docs and Zoom.
WAN Challenges
As you might imagine, the rise of applications is leading to more complexity. More than one in three (37%) respondents listed complexity as a top challenge, followed by slow access (33%) and slow performance. Customers clearly want better speed across the board. Forty-three percent said they see application performance as a driver for transforming their WAN.
SASE Initiatives
The study found that the majority (56%) of respondents have not yet deployed SASE but will do so within the next 12-24 months. Twenty-nine percent have already deployed it.
A look at the desired features shows that SD-WAN and secure web gateway are top of mind for customers. Kiran noted that SASE brings together traditional network and security services but does more than combine them. On the network-as-a-service side, there are fresh new components like content delivery network (CDN) and digital experience management. On the historically fragmented security side, diverse technologies like cloud access security broker (CASB) and zero-trust network architecture (ZTNA) are coming together.
Security Plans
The SD-WAN industry has long debated the best way to integrate security. Do customers want native security functions embedded in the platform or a best-of-breed partnership approach?
This study indicates a preference for the latter. One-half (51%) of enterprises plan to use an SD-WAN provider that holds a partnership with a security vendor. The native approach came in second, with one in four (25%) planning to use an SD-WAN provider that possesses native SASE capabilities.
Purchasing Trends
The barriers that keep companies from investing in WAN transformation appear to be dropping, according to Aryaka. Although remote location application performance causes buyers the most angst, its prevalence dropped from 43% in 2020 to 36% this year. In addition, 40% of customers worried about their lack of knowledge in 2020, but only 33% expressed the same reservation this year.
Managed Services
The report indicated an overwhelming preference for a managed WAN approach, at 70%. Of those companies, they slightly preferred to use a managed service from a "generalist" provider than turn to a vertical-focused system integrator.
Only 18% of respondents said they plan to establish their new WAN architecture on their own.
Partner Takeaway
Kiran urged customers to embrace an opex model. Although many vendors are still rolling out capex, on-premises offerings, the survey indicates that customers want a cloud-based offering.
"[Partners should] get comfortable in driving revenue and profits from subscription offerings, where they may or may not be adding a huge amount of value to the product itself, but really become the gatekeepers of the customer relationship," Kiran said.
Partner Takeaway (Cont'd)
Kiran said partners also need to embrace the blurred lines between security and network offerings. Technologies are melding together. As a result, the consolidation of point solutions will mean that you have fewer things to sell. Thus, you need to focus more on selling a solution than selling products. You'll need to get better at evaluating and articulating the value proposition of what you're selling, Kiran said.
System integrators possess a natural disposition for such an approach.
"Their DNA is more tuned around services integration," Kiran said. "But for other types of partners who may not have that kind of DNA, they need to start taking steps toward that direction."
Partner Takeaway (Cont'd)
Kiran said partners also need to embrace the blurred lines between security and network offerings. Technologies are melding together. As a result, the consolidation of point solutions will mean that you have fewer things to sell. Thus, you need to focus more on selling a solution than selling products. You'll need to get better at evaluating and articulating the value proposition of what you're selling, Kiran said.
System integrators possess a natural disposition for such an approach.
"Their DNA is more tuned around services integration," Kiran said. "But for other types of partners who may not have that kind of DNA, they need to start taking steps toward that direction."
Businesses are struggling to adapt their wide area networks (WAN) to their rising number of applications.
Forty-six percent of enterprises deploy more than 500 applications, up from 23% in 2020, according to Aryaka Networks. The company on Tuesday unveiled its fifth annual State of the WAN Report.
This year’s study agreed with last year’s, which found that businesses see complexity as their chief concern when it comes to their wide area networks. And that should come as no surprise. In addition to handling an increasing number of applications, the modern WAN must also serve more locations. Last year, one in five (19%) respondents reported more than 100 connected inter-regional sites. The percentage ticked up to 28% in 2021.
Aryaka surveyed than 1,350 respondents from a range of industries. They hailed from a variety of locations, most predominantly Europe (29%) and North America (23%). These are global companies, most of whom operate in more than five countries. Their job positions varied from IT/network manager to chief information officer.
Shashi Kiran, Aryaka’s chief marketing and product officer, said the study revealed customers’ preference for a cloud-first architecture. However, that doesn’t mean they’re talking about public cloud. They put more of an emphasis on the practical outcomes that cloud provides, Kiran said.
Shashi Kiran
“Is it simple enough for me to consume? Can I just I just take it as a service? Can I use it to manage change? How easy is it to deploy?” he said.
SASE Heats Up
Kiran said the study also revealed a greater awareness of the secure access service edge (SASE). He said the appeal of SASE is not the availability of a new type of network or security capability. Rather, SASE gives customers the ability to consolidate point solutions into a single platform. Say goodbye to buying five or six different technologies from five or six different vendors.
“It’s going to be the network, it’s going to be different aspects of security [and] it’s going to be cloud. Those are all things that exist today. But what SASE is promising is the convergence of a lot of these things,” Kiran said.
Futuriom’s Scott Raynovich
Scott Raynovich, founder and chief analyst at Futuriom, agreed.
“This year, the report reflects many of the same trends we are seeing at Futuriom, which include the ongoing integration of cloud-based networking services and security – otherwise known as secure access service edge (SASE) – as well as strong demand for virtualized networking solutions targeted at work from anywhere (WFA) and hybrid work environments.”
Kiran explained some of Aryaka’s key findings to Channel Partners. Scroll through the images below to see nine key takeaways.
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