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Learn how SD-WAN Enables Digital Resiliency for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

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Ghassan Ado

Research VP, WW Telecom, Virtualization & CDN, IDC

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Randy Perry

Vice President, Sales Enablement Practice, IDC

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Jason Blackwell

Research Director, Consumer Multiplay and SMB Services, IDC

Did you know that 46% of SMBs have SD-WAN today, see what you can learn from SD-WAN adopters:

  • Overcoming obstacles to SD-WAN adoption
  • Best practices and strategies for adoption
  • Business and operational benefits that SD-WAN delivers
  • Essential Guidance for implementing SD-WAN in your company

Customize Your Experience

IDC conducted research with 304 organizations ranging in size from 5 to 2,000 employees. By selecting your organization size, you will view graphics relevant to your peer group. This range can be updated at any time at the top of each page.

Overview

Highlights of Small/Medium-Sized Market

Bouncing back from COVID-19, SMBs were hit hard. 75% are still in recovery. As a result:

  • 41% of SMBs are still focused on business continuity
  • 49% of SMBs will invest in SD-WAN over the next two years

But business life goes on, looking forward:

  • 36% more companies deploying SD-WAN have emerged from the COVID-19 business slowdown
  • Security is the number one challenge to IT today
  • 69% of SMB technology buying decisions are made by IT, below the C-level

SMBs with SD-WAN achieved up to 25% better business and operational outcomes, enabling them to be more resilient and quickly bounce back from COVID.

Current Focus for SMBs

Riding out the recession:

Focused on operational resiliency to ensure that our organization is ready for growth again

Economic slowdown:

Focus on ROI and prioritizing investments with near-term paybacks

Business continuity:

Investment and implementation of business continuity plans

SMBs are slowly recovering from the impact of COVID-19.

COVID-19 had a significant impact on SMBs. Nearly 75% are still recovering from the effects of the pandemic and are focused on more short-term investments and priorities.

Technologies like SD-WAN can be instrumental in addressing these issues and enabling these companies to become leaders in their industries.

Other surveys with large enterprises (over 1,000 employees) show the total still recovering averages 60%, so SMBs were hit a bit harder.

36% more organizations deploying SD-WAN have emerged from the COVID-19 business slowdown due to having developed better digital resiliency prior to 2020.

Those SMBs that focus on the return to growth and the new normal will have an advantage with longer-term benefits.

Key Technology Investments for the Next Three Years

SD-WAN is a priority for nearly half of SMBs and will help them achieve their goals for continuity and remote access.

Since half of this group has already invested in SD-WAN, this includes continued investments.

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

Impact of COVID-19 on Current Business Focus

No SD-WAN Have SD-WAN
Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

36% more companies deploying SD-WAN have emerged from the COVID-19 business slowdown due to having developed better digital resiliency prior to 2020.

Innovation, customer experience, and operational efficiency all can be driven by improved connectivity and technologies like SD-WAN.

Of SMBs with extensive investments in technology including SD-WAN, 82% have bounced back.

SMBs still reeling are focused on their revenue while the SMBs that have bounced back have done so thanks to technology investments increasing efficiency and innovation and reducing risk.

Security threats are the number 1 IT challenge for SMBs.

SD-WAN can integrate security solutions to address these concerns and take the burden off internal resources, allowing them to focus on more important business and technology issues.

SMBs are concerned about security threats, and rightly so; business networks are coming under attack more often.

Security was identified 20% to 100% more often than any other challenge.

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021
Network Services Primary or
Secondary Decision Maker
Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

Digital transformation goes on: Technology initiatives investment decision making for SMBs is shifting from the C-level to IT.

Managed service providers and technologies like SD-WAN can help these decision makers by offloading some of these responsibilities and ensuring that business resources will be secure, responsive, and available at all times.

69% of technology buying decisions are made by IT, below the C-level.

Previous Section

Key Highlights

Next Section

Implementing SD-WAN

Implementing SD-WAN

Some Thoughts on Implementing SD-WAN

More than half of SMBs with 1,000 to 1,999 employees have deployed SD-WAN.

3 primary obstacles to adopting SD-WAN are:

Budget: SMBs with SD-WAN achieved up to 25% better business and operational outcomes

Security: SD-WAN can deliver “five-nines” network reliability

  • 51% of SMBs see security as key additional WAN capability
  • SD-WAN security must address an extensive host of risks to be accepted

Resources: Flexibility and fast provisioning are the most important considerations in selecting an SD-WAN solution and can help overcome the resources challenge

SD-WAN uptake builds on a strong base of current users.

More than half of SMBs with 1,000 to 1,999 employees have deployed SD-WAN in their network environment, and more are planning to do so in the coming years.

Those businesses that don’t explore technologies to better connect their business locations may fall behind more advanced competitors.

5 to 999
employees 1,000 to 1,999
employees

For SMBs that have not yet implemented SD-WAN, there are three primary obstacles:

47%

Budgetary restrictions

47% of organizations that have not implemented SD-WAN cited budgetary restrictions as an obstacle. Many of those also cited that they did not see benefits to their business operations.

29%

Security concerns

Security concerns cited by 29%.

27%

Lack of internal resources

Lack of internal resources cited by 27%.

So how do you overcome that budget obstacle?

SMBs listed their top 5 business priorities as increasing innovation, improving customer experience/satisfaction, improving operational efficiency, revenue growth, and revenue growth from new markets, products, and customers. Companies with SD-WAN outperformed those without in all priorities. So, there is a strong ROI case to be made for SD-WAN.

SMBs with SD-WAN achieved up to 25% better business and operational outcomes, which enabled them to be better prepared for the pandemic’s disruption and able to more quickly bounce back.

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021
Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

Key Attributes of an SD-WAN Network Service or Solution

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

Security concerns: SMBs that have deployed SD-WAN depend on the secure connectivity and reliability that SD-WAN can deliver and is the key solution selection criteria.

Business today is dependent on network reliability for its survival. SD-WAN can deliver “five-nines” network reliability.

SMBs that have already implemented SD-WAN cited secure direct internet access for cloud apps as the number one feature of an SD-WAN solution and five- nines network reliability and secure network connectivity as the #1 most important attributes for selecting an SD-WAN provider.

Are you surprised that SMBs seek security as a key additional WAN capability?

Security is the most demanded capability when implementing SD-WAN.

Direct access to cloud services follows, addressing growth in cloud adoption.

Enterprises additionally expect better WAN performance.

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

SD-WAN security must address an extensive host of risks to be accepted.

SD-WAN security must be comprehensive, guarding against multiple security threats.

SMBs are most concerned with web application attacks and unauthorized access.

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

Most Important Considerations for Selecting an SD-WAN Solution

36%

Flexibility

Flexibility to use different networks for application delivery

34%

Faster WAN

Faster WAN provisioning (sites and applications)

Lack of internal resources, flexibility, and fast provisioning are the most important considerations in selecting an SD-WAN solution and can help overcome the resources challenge

SD-WAN helps to automate and integrate WAN management.

SD-WAN can help SMBs meet the changing requirements to connect business locations.

Flexibility and fast WAN provisioning are important considerations in an environment where business continuity is a key issue.

Reducing WAN management complexity is important to keep IT focused on more important business-critical issues and decisions.

Previous Section

Overview

Next Section

Digitization and Resiliency

Digitization and Resiliency

Analysis of Digitization Leaders and the Role of SD-WAN

  • SMBs with SD-WAN have already implemented twice as many other technology initiatives as those without
  • SMBs with SD-WAN plan to invest in business continuity, cloud services, and UCC and continue to invest in SD-WAN
  • Best practices of technology leaders in selecting SD-WAN providers
  • 41% of SMBs with SD-WAN said it is very important to source SD-WAN and network security from a single technology vendor
  • Telecom service providers are the number one trusted resource for SMBs that have deployed SD-WAN

SMBs with SD-WAN are the most digitally mature.

11% of SMBs with SD-WAN are currently using all 13 technology initiatives presented. On average they are currently using nine of the 13 compared with only five for those SMBs without SD-WAN. The most significant difference in SMBs with SD-WAN is the greater deployment of cloud initiatives, which may account for their greater resiliency.

SMBs with SD-WAN have already invested in twice as many other technology initiatives as SMBs without SD-WAN.

In many cases SD-WAN is an enabler of other technologies.

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

SMBs plan to invest in business continuity/remote access and unified communications.

SMBs with SD-WAN will gain further technology benefits by investing in cloud services, upgrading network infrastructure, and improving WAN security and application performance at a rate of 1.25 times that of their peers without SD-WAN.

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

Best Practices of Technology Leaders

SMBs with SD-WAN are two times more likely to agree on key attributes for service providers and services than companies without SD-WAN.

They have identified reliability, secure connectivity, and technology provider reliability as the top three attributes for service providers. The top attributes for services were flexibility to use different networks for application delivery, faster WAN provisioning, and reduced WAN complexity.

Top three additional types of enterprise WAN functionality

  • Security
  • Direct access to cloud service providers
  • WAN optimization/WAN application acceleration
Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021
Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

Some final security best practices from those SMBs that have deployed SD-WAN:

41% of SMBs with SD-WAN said it is very important to source SD-WAN and network security from a single technology vendor. SMBs with SD-WAN were 1.5 times more likely to source SD-WAN and security from a single vendor than SMBs without SD-WAN. 28% said it is very important to manage from a single platform, which indicates how important this may be in selecting the right vendor and solution.

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

SD-WAN Deployment Partners

Base = all respondents
Source: IDC's AT&T SMB SD-WAN Survey, February 2021

So where do you go? 23% of SMBs with SD-WAN selected telecom providers to implement their migration of existing WAN/network connections to SD-WAN, which is 53% more than the next highest choice, managed service providers.

Telecom service providers are the number 1 trusted resource for small and medium-sized businesses. They can provide end-to-end resources to help SMBs deploy new technologies and integrate these solutions with existing WAN/network connections and IT infrastructure.

Previous Section

Implementing SD-WAN

Next Section

Essential Guidance

Conclusion

Essential Guidance

  • 1
    Deploy SD-WAN to reap the benefits related to cost reduction and business resiliency, which far outweigh budgetary concerns.
  • 2
    Integrate SD-WAN into your digital initiatives. SMBs that have adopted SD-WAN have proven to be more innovative.
  • 3
    Expand SD-WAN deployment into other technology initatives such as videoconferencing, cloud services, and Internet of Things.
  • 4
    Choose managed SD-WAN providers, such as a communications service provider, to mitigate deployment risks.
  • 5
    Include security as an integrated part of SD-WAN deployment to guard against multiple threats.

SD-WAN will bring competitive advantages.

Learn more about those benefits now.

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Digitzation and Resiliency

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Essential Guidance

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