While the channel thinks cost saving is the primary sales point for SD-WAN it might be better off pitching sales on security issues.
TechTarget research suggests that improving security posture and reducing risk is the number one driver for firms looking at the SD-WAN.
Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst at ZK Research, said the findings of the research showed that the WAN had not fundamentally changed in decades and SD-WAN came with the promise of lower cost and more agility.
“The drivers for SD-WAN have changed, and security has bubbled up to the top. Over the past few years there has been a lot of focus on cost savings”, he said.
A quarter of those customers were using SD-WAN, and a further 44 percent were either in pilot or planning to roll something out in the next two years. A third had no plans for the tech.
There could be several reasons why a third are not looking at SD-WAN, and the TechTarget research uncovered some of the barriers to entry. Customers are struggling with skills and expertise, and as a result, that was a barrier to adoption. So were the perceived high costs of the technology and the cost of upgrading and migrating from legacy hardware.
“Lack of skills gives an opportunity for channel partners”, said Kerravala but warned that investment from partners around ensuring they could provide support had to be made.
Kerravala saw networking as the foundation for digital transformation, which is a topic dominating most channel discussions at the moment, but there still needed to be more done to get that message across.
“There is some education needed in the market to tie networking to digital transformation”.
