The business case for Masergy’s new SD-WAN Secure solutions

On July 21st Masergy announced a new portfolio of SD-WAN Secure solutions, uniquely designed to give companies of every size unrivaled performance along with more flexibility and choice in solution design. But why these features and why now? Masergy has never built and sold technology for technology’s sake–we have always responded to the needs of our clients, helping IT leaders achieve their digital ambitions. The business case for Masergy’s new SD-WAN Secure becomes clear when you take a look at the biggest trends today and how companies are approaching digital transformation in 2020. Here’s why our new portfolio makes business sense, solving problems that are relevant in today’s business landscape.

Work-from-anywhere drives more investment in SD-WAN

• 75% of Fortune 500 CEOs say the crisis is accelerating the pace of technological transformation, according to Fortune.
• Analysts Zeus Kerravala of ZK Research, Camille Mendler of Omdia, and Roopa Honnachari at Frost & Sullivan agree, saying that the pandemic is highlighting the case for SD-WAN investment and managed service models in particular. Download the Frost & Sullivan white paper
• A new study from ZK Research shows that the urgency for SD-WAN has increased since companies are making the transition to work-from-home: 46% claim the impact of the pandemic has accelerated their timeline for SD-WAN deployment. Moreover, 58% report SD-WAN made the transition to remote work easier for both IT and employees.

Today, SD-WAN has shifted from a nice-to-have to a need-to-have, and buyers are placing the greatest importance on security, cloud connectivity, and access options for remote workers.

Masergy’s third generation of SD-WAN solutions caters to this increased urgency, making the network truly work for the work-from-anywhere business. The new portfolio gives IT leaders more security features, cloud connectivity backed by industry-leading SLAs, as well as new deployment options including an internet-only connectivity strategy where they can overlay SD-WAN over the top of their existing private network and use the public internet to connect at-home users, applications, and locations. This allows companies to use the network they have in place today for cost-effective internet access for branch offices and remote workers. Learn about SD-WAN Over the Top

IT leaders want more SD-WAN services

Early adopters of SD-WAN were large enterprises using a do-it-yourself approach, but the tides are turning sharply. Today, more IT leaders prefer managed services and the assistance of service providers.

• In our conversations with Omdia Analyst Brian Washburn, we learned that according to their most recent survey of IT leaders, only 4% say they are completely DIY when it comes to SD-WAN. Data shows that enterprises still look to managed service providers to handle much of their security and transport when it comes to SD-WAN.
• Forrester analysts largely concur and have told Masergy that only 10% use a DIY approach with the vast majority (65%) using a co-managed solution and 25% using a fully managed solution.
• In 2017, Nemertes Research began surveying IT leaders about which types of SD-WAN solutions they were investing in. At the time, only 8% favored a managed service. Today is a starkly different story. 2020 results: 49.50%. Get the infographic

While the data indicates IT leaders are ready to take a more hands-off approach to the network, they still want to be able to see what’s happening inside and make changes on the fly themselves–particularly when the new normal calls for fast-moving business pivots. This increases the importance of shared real-time control and explains why co-managed options are gaining traction today.

Masergy has responded by sharing in the responsibilities of SD-WAN management, giving clients a copy of the “key to the network kingdom.” Using the SD-WAN management portal and Masergy’s enhanced SD-WAN orchestrator, clients gain all the benefits of a fully managed SD-WAN without losing control over network policies, application routing rules and security policies.

Learn about co-managed SD-WAN

When it comes to SD-WAN security comes first

With more employees working from home, using more of their personal devices, and with the popularity of SD-branch strategies that use the public internet for connectivity, there is a tremendous need for internet-facing security at the WAN edge. So, it shouldn’t surprise you that SD-WAN buyers put security first.

• Work from home strategies are increasing the threat surface for companies, which increases the urgency for endpoint security, network security, and cloud security
• 81% of IT leaders say security is the most critical factor when selecting SD-WAN solutions
• By 2021, 75% of SD-WAN sites will send traffic directly to the public internet (without backhauling data to firewalls in the datacenter) and 80% of IT leaders want their SD-WAN to replace branch firewalls, according to Nemertes Research’s white paper on next-gen SD-WAN

In fact, today’s work-from-anywhere environment only increases the need for security, and network and security functions are becoming so intertwined that Gartner has coined the term SASE (Secure Access Service Edge). SASE refers to solutions that combine security and SD-WAN in a unified, cloud-based approach that encompasses cloud firewalls, secure edge gateway, and cloud security, and Zero Trust security strategies.

For years, Masergy has been innovating around network and security convergence, uniting the two domains into a single strategy. Our new SASE architecture serves as just the latest example of how we’re uniting the network and security into one cloud-based platform from one partner.

Learn how Masergy delivers on the primary tenets of SASE

The cloud dominates and SD-WAN solves more than one cloud problem

Digital transformation calls for cloud applications and public cloud infrastructure services, but introducing them brings with it performance problems for legacy networks. SD-WAN is largely known for its centralized management features and dynamic traffic steering capabilities that help solve the common performance problems of cloud application delivery. Now, it’s doing even more. Today, SD-WAN is also being recognized as the access point for the cloud services that IT leaders are looking for.

In the same manner, Masergy SD-WAN Secure is helping companies of all sizes both reach the cloud and deliver with confidence. Serving as the cloud on-ramp, our direct cloud interconnections help companies tap into hundreds of SaaS applications and cloud services from providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and others. But what’s more interesting are our industry-trailblazing SLAs, which back those direct connections with 100% service availability. Plus, it’s easy to manage. One portal and one dashboard reduces the complexity of managing multi-cloud environments in a single, consolidated view.

Learn about Masergy’s new SLAs and multi-cloud connectivity.

When companies get SD-WAN the way they want it and in a format that can move with their business, the investment becomes a compelling play that few can ignore. When innovation is wrapped by flexible options, IT leaders get a strategy for wider transformational impact across the network, security, and the cloud.

Learn more about Masergy SD-WAN Secure.