As the SD-WAN market matures Cisco’s focus is to address the market shift from early-adopters to large scale adoption. We have listened to customers to understand their requirements which has enabled Cisco to consistently deliver new capabilities that align to the right use cases. This approach is critical in this fast paced market since customers are no longer asking “What is SD-WAN?”, but “How can I deploy SD-WAN?” and “How do I extend SD-WAN to the cloud, access and data center domains?” More importantly, during this market shift, there is an increasing preference by IT teams to use internet connectivity over MPLS to connect users directly to cloud applications. As a result, the underlying challenges of using internet connectivity are further amplified:
- Protecting users and devices while reducing exposure to the onslaught of security threats as data passes over untrusted networks outside of the control of IT
- Increasing productivity by ensuring application performance is consistent since internet connectivity does not guarantee throughput or provide SLA’s like MPLS
- Simplifying the complexity associated with connecting users and devices to applications where users are increasingly mobile and the applications they are consuming could be hosted on any cloud.
The latest IDC market share numbers show that Cisco was ranked #1 for 2018 market share worldwide for SD-WAN Infrastructure*.
As Cisco focuses on the larger architectural shift, our intent-based multi-domain strategy is designed to extend policy beyond the WAN to connect users and devices to applications anywhere. Cisco SD-WAN is the backbone that interconnects the branch, campus, colocation and cloud domains to deliver a secure, predictable user experience on any cloud. Together both Meraki and Viptela offer:
- Multi-layer security – comprehensive protection for Direct Internet Access, external and internal threats, protecting users, devices, and applications by deploying embedded or cloud security faster using the best threat intelligence.
- Predictable application experience – consistent performance across any transport, location and cloud increases user productivity by optimizing cloud and on-premises application responsiveness with real-time analytics, visibility, and control.
- Enterprise scale – intent-based, multi-domain architecture that provides true end-to-end segmentation from the user to the application while maintaining policy across thousands of sites.
- Simplified management and operations – centralized management with a single user interface that is open and programmable making it easy for IT to deploy SD-WAN and security across all locations.
So, what are the key benefits that businesses can get from Cisco’s Secure SD-WAN architecture? In an IDC White Paper, sponsored by Cisco, IDC interviewed Cisco (Viptela) customers and conducted research that explores the value and benefits of using SD-WAN solutions to run and support their campus and branch locations and here are some of the results. The full IDC White Paper can be downloaded here:
IDC White Paper, Sponsored by Cisco, Business Value of Cisco SD-WAN Solutions; Studying the Results of Deployed Organizations, April 2019. 
Want to learn more about Cisco SD-WAN? Check out our solution overview, or better still sign up to see a demo today. Follow me on twitter @ghodgaonkar to stay up to date on the latest SD-WAN news.
*Source: *IDC, Worldwide SD-WAN Infrastructure Market Shares, 2018: Incumbent and Start-Up Networking Vendors Continue to Compete in Fast-Growing Market, doc #Doc # US45160019, June 2019
indidigital