Cisco Tops VMware, Fortinet on SD-WAN Technology Supplier Leaderboard

Cisco takes the top spot on Vertical Systems Group’s inaugural leaderboard of U.S. SD-WAN technology suppliers.

This latest leaderboard ranks SD-WAN technology suppliers based on share of total carrier managed SD-WAN sites in the United States powered by their SD-WAN equipment. VMware ranks second, followed by Fortinet, Versa Networks and HPE Aruba.

Each of these technology suppliers has 5% or more of the total number of U.S. carrier managed SD-WAN customer sites installed and billable as of June 30. For this analysis, a site is counted once per supplier, regardless of the amount of SD-WAN equipment installed at the customer location.

These technology companies and others are the key suppliers of SD-WAN equipment deployed by the service providers ranked on Vertical Systems Group’s mid-2023 U.S. carrier managed SD-WAN leaderboard. That includes AT&T, Comcast Business, Verizon, Hughes, Lumen Technologies and Windstream, as well as to service providers cited in the Challenge and Market Player tiers.

SD-WAN Technology Supplier Challenges

“As migration to managed SD-WAN solutions accelerates, technology suppliers are actively enhancing their products to keep pace, while vying to integrate secure access service edge (SASE) and security service edge (SSE) capabilities,” said Rosemary Cochran, principal of Vertical Systems Group.

For this analysis, SD-WAN solutions for Cisco include Meraki MX and Cisco SD-WAN. VMware offers SD-WAN by VeloCloud, and Fortinet offers FortiGate. Versa’s solution is Secure SD-WAN, and HPE Aruba offers EdgeConnect SD-WAN.

Technology suppliers providing SD-WAN equipment to service providers may also supply SASE and SSE solutions. Some service providers deploy SD-WAN with their own internally developed SD-WAN platforms, including Hughes and Aryaka.

Security integration was cited as a top challenge in 2022 for managed SD-WAN service providers offering two or more different SD-WAN platforms. Based on mid-2023 research, this challenge is more problematic both technically and operationally, with some providers now integrating security across as many as five or more different SD-WAN solutions.

MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Technology Certification has been attained by Cisco, Fortinet, VMware and Versa.

Market players include all other companies with site share below 5% of total U.S. carrier managed SD-WAN customer sites. Among market players are Adaptiv Networks, Arista, Barracuda, Cradlepoint, Ecessa, Extreme Networks, FatPipe, Forcepoint, GFI Software, Huawei, Juniper Networks, Lavelle Networks, Mushroom Networks, Netscaler, Nuage Networks from Nokia, Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, Riverbed, Teldat, WatchGuard Technologies and others.