SD-WAN Won’t Become a Feature of Branch Routing

M. Fratto

Summary Bullets:

• SD-WAN products and technology offer distinctly different features and benefits compared to branch routers. SD-WAN won’t augment routers but will replace them in the branch.
• Vendors making branch devices like routers and firewalls should be very concerned about being replaced with SD-WAN hardware and software.

I make no secret that I think SD-WAN is the cat’s meow. It really is transformative technology that, in most cases, can deliver on the promise of an as robust or better WAN overlay that obviates the need for a complex routed WAN architecture and the skills need to maintain it. If an enterprise wants to relegate its WAN to just pipes, it can overlay an SD-WAN on top of the WAN and manage it themselves. If the enterprise wants an SD-WAN and WAN service that has management integration from service provisioning to management, it can get a combined service—or soon will be able to get a combined service—from any number of managed service providers. In either case, gone is the complex routed WAN which is brittle and takes a long time to respond to problems. Whether the enterprise router jockeys will want to give up their beautifully crafted BGP is another matter, but the potential exists for most companies.