In my most recent blog post, I talked about the difficulty SD-WAN vendors have in finding their voice and clearly differentiating their value. My point was that if Wendy’s, Burger King, and McDonald’s could figure out how to differentiate their burgers and fries, we should be able articulate why customers choose our solutions over the 60+ vendors competing for their business. I started out talking about the business reasons why companies select Silver Peak. Now it’s time to talk about our differentiation at a product level.

How is our SD-WAN edge platform, Unity EdgeConnect™, unique? I’ll frame the differentiation around what our customers are telling us. You’ll notice a significant emphasis on our ability to improve application performance for any type of application traversing any type of transport. We’re the only company that first tries to fix problems with the underlying network, allowing customers to fully leverage all of their circuits, even in instances of degraded performance. Unlike others, we don’t just re-route packets in the event of transport brownouts and blackouts.

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If Wendy’s, Burger King and McDonald’s can find a way to make it clear how they are different despite each offering hamburgers and french fries, why is it, five years into the hottest networking disruption in decades, companies are having so much trouble differentiating their SD-WAN products? (And, before anyone jumps in regarding their menu, yes, I realize the menu of these fast food giants has greatly evolved over the years, but the food with which they made their mark remains burgers and fries.) 

I understand that there are now 60+ vendors offering SD-WAN-like products, but even before the market exploded in terms of providers and adoption, even the top five vendors’ messages are the equivalent of a vanilla milkshake. When asked about some of our biggest challenges as a company and as an industry, I typically talk about the need to do some SD-WAN washing. In fact, I often share the story of how I attended a presentation at a conference and as I was sitting there, I closed my eyes and listened closely. My takeaway from the 60-minute discussion: “Wow, if I didn’t already know which vendor was presenting, I couldn’t tell who it was – everyone sounded alike.” 

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