News

Firm Ranks Managed SD-WAN Services: Orange Beats AT&T and Verizon

• By David Ramel
• 08/13/2021

Vertical Systems Group published its first benchmark leaderboard for global managed Software-Defined Wide-Area-Network (SD-WAN) services.

The new industry benchmark for multinational SD-WAN market presence covers companies that hold a 5 percent or higher share of billable retail sites outside of their respective home countries.

"Enterprises with business-essential applications that span multiple regions of the world are choosing SD-WAN solutions from network operators with the global infrastructures, experience, partnerships and technical expertise necessary to deliver world-class services," said Rick Malone, principal of Vertical Systems Group.

Taking the top spot in the research firm's inaugural Mid-2021 Global Provider Carrier Managed SD-WAN Leaderboard was France-based Orange Business Services, which beat out six other providers based on site share data outside of the provider's home country as of June 30, 2021. So Orange had the largest number of SD-WAN customer sites installed outside of France. Reflecting the global nature of the study, the top-ranked companies come from all over the world, including France, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Spain:

1. Orange Business (France)
2. AT&T (United States)
3. Verizon (United States)
4. NTT (Japan)
5. BT Global Services (United Kingdom)
6. Telefonica Global (Spain)
7. Vodafone (United Kingdom)

Twelve other companies made the "Challenge Tier" (companies with site share between 1 percent and 5 percent of this defined SD-WAN segment), which are presented here alphabetically:

• Aryaka (U.S.)
• Colt (U.K.)
• Deutsche Telekom (Germany)
• Global Cloud Xchange (India)
• GTT (U.S.)
• Hughes (U.S.)
• Lumen (U.S.)
• PCCW Global (Hong Kong)
• Singtel (Singapore)
• Tata (India)
• Telia (Sweden)
• Telstra (Australia)

Highlights of the report as presented by Vertical Systems Group include:

• Vertical’s SD-WAN Coverage Analysis for five regional markets -- North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa/Middle East, Asia/Pacific -- shows that all seven companies ranked on the leaderboard have good to strong coverage in at least three of these regions.
• COVID-19 continues to appreciably impact every region of the world. Challenges cited by global SD-WAN operators include workforce health protection, tracking the shift back from remote to office environments, service disconnects due to business closures, and supply chain disruptions.
• Most multinational Managed SD-WAN customer implementations are hybrid network configurations that incorporate MPLS, IP VPN, Cloud connectivity or other services, plus multiple security capabilities that are integral or supplied by technology partners.
• SD-WAN customers with MPLS connections are migrating to more cloud-suitable broadband services that provide bandwidth flexibility and lower pricing.
• Ethernet DIA is the preferred choice for SD-WAN customers that require dedicated, symmetrical connectivity. Five of the seven companies on the SD-WAN leaderboard are ranked on the 2020 Global Provider Ethernet Leaderboard (in rank order): AT&T, Orange Business Services, Verizon, BT Global Services and NTT.
• Two companies ranked on the leaderboard -- AT&T and Verizon -- have attained MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Services Certification to date. Additionally, three companies cited in the Challenge Tier -- Colt, PCCW Global and Telia -- have MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Services certification.
• The primary technology suppliers to the 19 Mid-2021 Carrier Managed SD-WAN LEADERBOARD and Challenge Tier companies are as follows (in alphabetical order): Cisco, Fortinet, HPE Aruba, Nuage Networks from Nokia, Versa and VMware.

Seventeen other companies ranked in the Market Player tier, with site share below 1 percent.