IDG Contributor Network: When SD-WAN is more than SD-WAN

As the SD-WAN market has matured, one thing has become very clear: SD-WAN will not exist on its own. The technology is merging with other networking technologies, ultimately becoming a feature of a much larger bundle. While it may be too early to say what this “new thing” will be, the rough contours are emerging.

Predominantly, we’re seeing security and SD-WANs merge. Just consider some of the activity:

• Velocloud recently announced its SD-WAN Security Technology Partner Program to integrate with other security vendor’s products.
• Viptela (soon to be Cisco), Silver Peak, Velocloud and others have long (well, long in the SD-WAN sense) touted integration with security vendors using service chaining.
• Cato Networks built its own integrated security and networking stack in the cloud.
• Masergy bundles SD-WAN (Silver Peak and its own technology) with third-party security services in the cloud.

But what’s missing in many of these integrated offerings is the completeness of the edge solution. Companies need more than just an SD-WAN in branch offices. They need firewall, IPS, anti-malware, URL filtering and anti-virus for security. Internally, networking calls for Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, and print services. Externally, the edge may need WAN optimization, bandwidth management, QOS, traffic balancing, and, yes, SD-WAN.

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