Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN

SD-WAN Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

Key features and pros and cons of top SD-WAN products:

Broadcom (VMware) - Leader

Pros:

Product: Broadcom has broad and deep SD-WAN product capabilities that address most current enterprise use cases.
Sales execution/pricing: Broadcom has strong SD-WAN market share, and its pricing is competitive when compared with other vendors in this research.
Market understanding: The vendor has strong SD-WAN market understanding based on its enterprise experience and market focus.

Cons:

Market investment: The vendor's expected investment growth in the SD-WAN market is lower than other vendors in this research, which may limit the vendor's ability to keep up with market developments.
Customer experience: The vendor's customer experience is below average when compared with other vendors in this research, based primarily on end-user Gartner client interactions. Gartner clients also express concerns about potential impacts from Broadcom's acquisition of VMware.
Product strategy: Broadcom's SD-WAN product roadmap includes more narrow and catch-up capabilities, such as fixed wireless access and cloud-based security, when compared with other vendors in this research.

Cisco - Leader

Pros:

Sales execution: Cisco has robust global sales channels with a strong market share.
Product strategy: Cisco's SD-WAN product roadmap is aligned with end-user organization needs, focusing on its AI assistant as well as security and networking integration.
Marketing execution: Cisco has high SD-WAN market visibility for end users and overall strong marketing execution.

Cons:

Customer experience: Cisco has below-average customer experience compared with other vendors in this research, based primarily on end-user Gartner client interactions.
Marketing strategy: Cisco's go-forward marketing strategy is less specific to the SD-WAN market and unlikely to change buyer behavior.
Vertical/industry strategy: Cisco has more of a horizontal strategy than a vertical/industry strategy, which may result in overlooking some specific customer needs.

Fortinet - Leader

Pros:

Sales execution/pricing: Fortinet has strong SD-WAN market share, robust channels and competitive pricing, which is appealing to many organizations.
Product strategy: Fortinet's SD-WAN product roadmap is aligned with end-user organization needs, focusing on GenAI, machine learning and DEM enhancements.
Customer experience: Fortinet has strong customer experience, compared with other vendors in this research, based on Gartner end-user client interactions and Gartner Peer Insights' customer feedback.

Cons:

Networking capabilities: Some large global clients question Fortinet's ability to meet the requirements of large complex enterprise WAN configurations, topologies and architectures.
Security service edge (SSE) integrations: Fortinet has limited integrations with third-party SSE vendors, which reduces enterprise choice when deploying a dual-vendor SASE architecture.
Sales strategy: Fortinet's sales strategy is limited and more tactical, focusing more on internal efficiencies rather than enhancing how it reaches enterprise customers.

HPE - Leader

Pros:

Product: HPE has strong performance optimization, cloud onramp, partner-integrated security and operational capabilities that are aligned with current SD-WAN market needs.
Marketing execution: Compared with other vendors in this research, HPE demonstrates above-average marketing execution, based on its marketing message and value proposition, resulting in solid SD-WAN market visibility for end users.
Sales strategy: HPE has above-average expected future sales investment and plans to simplify its pricing model.

Cons:

Customer experience: Based primarily on Gartner end-user interactions, HPE has below-average customer experience compared with other vendors in this research.
Multiple SD-WAN products: HPE has multiple SD-WAN products that address different use cases. This may result in customer or prospect confusion and introduce the risk of selecting the wrong offering.
Vertical/industry strategy: HPE employs more of a horizontal strategy than a vertical/industry strategy, which may result in overlooking some specific customer needs.

Palo Alto Networks - Leader

Pros:

Sales strategy: Compared with other vendors in this research, Palo Alto Networks has an above-average sales strategy as part of its broader go-to-market to expand its reach and more effectively target end-user customers.
Market understanding: Palo Alto Networks has demonstrated a strong understanding of current and future customer requirements, such as single-vendor SASE, when compared with other vendors in this research.
Market responsiveness: Palo Alto Networks has a history of solid market response, such as the transition to SASE, to address market needs in the context of the broader competitive environment.

Cons:

Pricing: Based on end-user Gartner client interactions, Palo Alto Networks has high SD-WAN pricing, which limits its market adoption and impacts infrastructure and operations (I&O) budgets.
Customer experience: Palo Alto Networks has below-average customer experience, compared with other vendors in this research, based on Gartner end-user client interactions and evidence from Gartner Peer Insights respondents.
Multiple SD-WAN products: Palo Alto Networks offers two SD-WAN products, which creates market confusion. Customers must choose between a strong on-premises security offering with limited SD-WAN functionality and a strong SD-WAN offering with limited on-premises security functionality.

Versa Networks - Leader

Pros:

Product: Versa Networks provides a fully capable SD-WAN offering with strong routing and application steering, on-premises security, and deployment flexibility functions.
Product strategy: Compared with other vendors in this research, Versa Networks has an above-average SD-WAN product strategy with a focus on multicloud connectivity and AI networking that is aligned with current and future end-user needs.
Customer experience: Versa Networks has above-average customer experience compared with other vendors in this research, based primarily on Gartner end-user client interactions.

Cons:

Pricing: Versa Networks has higher-than-average pricing for Secure SD-WAN, based on Gartner analyst assessment and Gartner Peer Insights data. The higher pricing makes the offering less appealing to cost-conscious buyers who have basic requirements.
Vertical/industry strategy: Versa Networks employs more of a horizontal strategy than a vertical/industry strategy, which may result in overlooking some specific customer needs.
Multiple SD-WAN products: The vendor offers two SD-WAN products with different capabilities, so there is a risk of selecting the wrong product for a specific customer need, especially if the need changes over time.

Huawei - Challenger

Pros:

Sales execution/pricing: When compared with other vendors in this research, Huawei's sales execution is driven by a robust channel and lower pricing, which is attractive for price-sensitive organizations.
Viability: Huawei has strong viability, based on its financial metrics and expected future investment.
SD-branch capabilities: Huawei's focus on integrated wireless LAN (WLAN), LAN, SD-WAN and security offers customers a simplified, unified end-user experience.

Cons:

Market presence: Due to geopolitical issues, Huawei does not serve organizations in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and India. The vendor has limited market awareness outside the Asia/Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa regions, which limits its ability to grow.
Product strategy: Huawei's SD-WAN product roadmap is not as future-looking, with focus on converged CPE for 5G and Wi-Fi 7, as well as optimization for asymmetrical CPE deployments, which are not as aligned with future expected broad end-user needs.
Marketing execution: Huawei's SD-WAN marketing message and ability to market its capabilities are below average when compared with other vendors in this research.

Juniper Networks - Visionary

Pros:

Innovation: Juniper Networks' recent and planned innovations in AI networking have started to change SD-WAN buyer behavior.
SD-branch functionality: Juniper Networks' focus on integrated WLAN, LAN, SD-WAN and security offers customers a simplified, unified end-user experience.
Customer experience: Juniper Networks has above-average customer experience, based on Gartner SD-WAN end-user client interactions and evidence from Gartner Peer Insights respondents.

Cons:

Sales execution: Juniper Networks has narrow SD-WAN sales channels, which has limited its SD-WAN market share.
Marketing execution: Juniper Networks has below-average SD-WAN market visibility and awareness, compared with other vendors in this research, in part based on Gartner end-user clients rarely asking about the vendor.
Geographic strategy: Juniper Networks' geographic strategy is more narrow, when compared with other vendors in this research, limiting how it reaches regional end-user buyers.

Barracuda - Niche Player

Pros:

SMB focus: Barracuda focuses on providing operational simplicity for SMB customers.
Pricing: Barracuda's pricing is competitive when compared with other vendors in this research, which should appeal to price-sensitive organizations.
On-premises security: Barracuda's SD-WAN offering includes strong integrated on-premises security that is appealing to security-sensitive organizations.

Cons:

Innovation: Barracuda's planned SD-WAN innovations are unlikely to deliver game-changing capabilities to the market, as the vendor is more focused on delivering incremental enhancements.
Market visibility: Barracuda has low SD-WAN market visibility for end users, based on end-user Gartner interactions, gartner.com searches and social media conversations.
Product: Barracuda's breadth and depth of SD-WAN features have limited appeal for organizations with larger, more complex networks, compared with other vendors in this research. This includes limitations with cloud onramp, partner-integrated cloud security, small platform flexibility, and routing and application steering when compared with other vendors in this research.

Ericsson (Cradlepoint) - Niche Player

Pros:

Cellular wireless focus: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has a primary focus of developing and selling cellular wireless WAN solutions to end users.
Vertical/industry strategy: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has a strong vertical/industry focus on use cases specific in retail, transportation and public safety.
Sales strategy: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has a focused sales strategy to reach organizations that are consistent with its target market, which will improve its chances to grow.

Cons:

Innovation: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has a narrow cellular-centric innovation roadmap, focused on microtunnel integration into SD-WAN to improve performance and integration of user attributes via SIM into SD-WAN, which has limited chance to change buyer behavior.
Pricing: Based on Gartner analysis and Gartner Peer Insights, Ericsson (Cradlepoint), compared with other vendors in this research, has higher pricing, which is less appealing to price-sensitive organizations.
Marketing execution: Ericsson (Cradlepoint) has below-average marketing execution, compared with other vendors in this research, resulting in low SD-WAN market visibility for end users.

Peplink - Niche Player

Pros:

Viability: Peplink has strong viability, based on strong company financials as well as above-average expected investment growth going forward, which increases its chance for future expansion.
Geographic strategy: Peplink scored above-average for its geographic strategy due to its focus on expanding its presence in Asia/Pacific and Japan.
Pricing: Compared with other vendors in this research, Peplink's pricing is competitive, which appeals to cost-conscious organizations with more basic requirements.

Cons:

Innovation: Peplink has a narrow innovation roadmap, focused on managing third-party network devices and performance tuning of cellular links, which has limited chance to change buyer behavior.
Product: Peplink's product is not well-aligned with broader current and future enterprise SD-WAN buyer requirements when compared with other vendors in this research.
Market visibility: Peplink has low SD-WAN market visibility and is viewed primarily as a vendor providing cellular wireless WAN solutions, which has limited appeal to the broader market.

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2024?

A: Broadcom (VMware), Cisco, Fortinet, HPE, Palo Alto Networks, Versa Networks

Q: What does "Leader" mean in MQ terms?

A: A Leader has demonstrated a sustained ability to address changing end-user requirements in the SD-WAN market as well as long-term viability. A Leader can drive, shape and transform the market in areas such as AI networking or security as well as maintain strong relationships with its channels and customers. Leaders typically have solid products that address most use cases across various verticals globally, maintain high visibility among Gartner clients and demonstrate success while at the same time innovating to drive the market forward.

Q: How do I interpret a Gartner Magic Quadrant?

A: https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/magic-quadrants-research

Report:

Top Vendor Products for SD-WAN in 2024

SD-WAN Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2024?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in MQ terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Gartner Magic Quadrant?

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