The surging requirement for cost-effective wide area network (WAN) management and automation solutions, increasing need for a simplified enterprise network architecture, the rising proliferation of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy at workplaces, burgeoning demand for big data and internet of things (IoT), booming demand for network privacy, accelerating cloud-based solutions deployment rate, and growing internet penetration will drive the software defined-WAN (SD-WAN) market at a healthy CAGR of 38.6% during the forecast period (2020–2030). The market was valued at $1.4 billion in 2019 and it is projected to generate $43.0 billion revenue by 2030.

One of the major growth drivers for the market is the rising need for data privacy and visibility, owing to the surging volume of data being generated by enterprises. In recent years, data has become highly prone to unauthorized access, which has made many enterprises shift from traditional WAN solutions to SD-WAN solutions. SD-WAN solutions help in measuring and monitoring network traffic and also provide information technology (IT) departments deep visibility into WAN. With this information, the IT departments can quickly pinpoint a security threat.

Currently, the increasing demand for WAN optimization as a service from IT organizations to reduce their WAN cost and overcome the challenges of network performance is becoming a major trend in the SD-WAN market. The market players are constantly upgrading their virtual and physical WAN optimization product portfolio to provide end users with improved application performance. WAN optimization solutions also offer greater virtual flexibility, increased business productivity, improved security as a service (SaaS) application performance, and cloud-ready networking infrastructure to IT firms.

The offering segment of the SD-WAN market is divided into solution and service. Of these, the service category is expected to exhibit the faster growth during the forecast period, owing to the surging requirement for SD-WAN planning, consulting, and maintenance and support solutions among enterprises to manage the lifecycle of the technology, allocate resources, and streamline processes. This category is further classified into consulting, implementation, and training and support. Whereas, the solution category is bifurcated into appliance and software.

According to P&S Intelligence, the North American SD-WAN market generated the highest revenue during the historical period (2014–2019), due to the presence of established market players and extensive use of advanced technologies in the region. Moreover, the mounting focus of market players on the introduction of advanced SD-WAN solutions, the increasing need of businesses to simplify their network operations, and surging government support regarding the expansion of the 5G network infrastructure also contributed toward the market growth in the region in the past years.

Whereas, Asia-Pacific (APAC) is expected to register the fastest growth in the SD-WAN market during the forecast period. This will be due to the increasing deployment of wireless devices, rising focus of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the adoption of cloud solutions, growing usage of enterprise networking solutions, mounting IT expenditure, soaring public focus on network security, and the booming popularity of bring-BYOD culture in the region. Additionally, the mounting focus of market players on establishing partnerships with cloud service providers to help businesses secure a hybrid IT network will also support the market growth in the region in the coming years.

Thus, the escalating need for data visibility and privacy and increasing demand for WAN optimization solutions will catalyze the market growth in the foreseeable future.