As enterprises come under more pressure to be more agile, efficient, and user-centric, wide-area network (WAN) edge infrastructure services are becoming critical for achieving the digital transformation. By deploying software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) services closer to users’ end locations such as branch offices and connected devices, enterprises can improve application performance, manage data traffic flow, and reduce latency, all while reducing network infrastructure operational and maintenance costs.
A growing number of enterprises are recognizing the competitive benefits of moving WAN services to the network edge. In a Gartner survey, 27% of organizations said they intend to exploit edge computing in 2018 as part of their infrastructure strategies, with that percentage rising to 70% by the end of 2019. According to Gartner’s report, by the end of 2023, more than 90% of WAN edge infrastructure refresh initiatives will be based on virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE) platforms or SD-WAN software/appliances versus traditional routers, up from less than 40% today.