Community Safety within the SD-WAN Market

SD-WAN is now an integral a part of most WANs and a core element of community safety architectures comparable to SASE. In a crowded market, security measures are a major promoting level for a lot of SD-WAN suppliers as enterprise community operators prioritize security measures comparable to SWG, CASB, NGFWaaS, ZTNA, DLP, SSO, MFA, and extra.

This publish explores how enterprise community professionals are strategizing their SD-WAN-equipped networks—particularly when integrating safety— and is knowledgeable by our SD-WAN Market Abstract, which yow will discover in our SD-WAN Pricing platform. This SD-WAN information is a part of our bigger WAN Supervisor Survey, totally accessible in our Cloud and WAN Analysis Service platform.

On this publish:

SD-WAN service and pricing evaluation

SD-WAN is a important element of the fashionable WAN and an amazing majority of enterprises have already adopted the service. In 2025, 63% of our WAN Supervisor Survey (WMS) respondents had put in SD-WAN on at the least a part of their community. An extra 15% indicated that that they had chosen a vendor and have been at the moment rolling out SD-WAN.

So how are enterprise clients sourcing their SD-WAN overlay? The determine beneath particulars the responses from our WAN Supervisor Survey respondents. In 2025, a plurality (44%) of WAN managers indicated that they sourced an unmanaged SD-WAN service immediately from an SD-WAN vendor or or these suppliers who supply service through their very own proprietary expertise. This was adopted by a telco that owned or operated at the least a chunk of their community underlay and supplied managed SD-WAN service (33% of respondents throughout a number of administration ranges). Working with an MSP that didn’t personal or function their community underlay (throughout quite a lot of administration ranges) accounted for 23% of responses.

Because the service has turn out to be so pervasive and the expertise extra standardized, the worth of SD-WAN now lies within the intelligence and security measures which might be being added to the service and, finally, its worth.

SD-WAN and the Safe Service Edge (SSE)

Safety has emerged as a particular use case for SD-WAN and a approach for suppliers to differentiate themselves in a crowded market. Many suppliers are working to extra seamlessly combine SD-WAN and safety providers right into a single product often known as ‘Safe Entry Service Edge,’ SASE, or ‘Safety Service Edge’ SSE when not built-in with SD-WAN immediately. Enterprise curiosity in SASE providers is excessive, as we element within the determine beneath. In 2025, 53% of WMS respondents had already carried out some SASE components into their community. That’s up from 8% in 2019 (after we requested particularly about Zero Belief Safety). An extra 23% have been within the processing of adopting some components of SASE whereas solely 7% had no plans to undertake the safety framework.

SD-WAN safety approaches

SD-WAN distributors and MSPs have taken a number of approaches to integrating these security measures into their service portfolios. A majority have adopted a ‘better of breed’ method, working with quite a few safety suppliers based mostly on their background and strengths. Interoperability could be a concern right here although. Others have opted for a single vendor SASE method, selecting to focus extra on seamless integration reasonably than maybe the strongest provider of every service.

In 2025, for SD-WAN distributors, Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, Examine Level, Netskope, and Microsoft have been the highest 5 cited safety service companions. It’s price noting that a number of the most acquainted names within the safety area, comparable to Cisco and Fortinet, don’t fall on this listing. These firms have leveraged their in-house safety experience and built-in it into their very own SD-WAN service. They’ve tended to associate with carriers and managed SD-WAN service suppliers, reasonably than different SD-WAN distributors, to assist them with their safety portfolios. You’ll be able to see this within the high safety companions cited by MSPs – Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, and Cisco.

There was an extended tail of safety distributors cited as a associate by only one SD-WAN vendor or MSP. We’ve included them within the ‘different’ column.

SD-WAN safety function availability

Fundamental security measures can be found from nearly all SD-WAN distributors and MSPs. In truth, all of our profiled SD-WAN distributors and MSPs supplied superior community monitoring. Equally, 21 of twenty-two distributors and 66 of 82 MSPs included safe entry options for distant employees. The most important focus for SD-WAN suppliers although, is in incorporating security measures related to SASE or SSE. Trying on the determine beneath, you’ll be able to see that providers included within the SASE structure have vastly elevated in availability, however are nonetheless not supplied by each SD-WAN supplier.

• Subsequent-generation Firewall-as-a-Service (NGFWaaS) NGFWaaS is the SASE or SSE service {that a} majority of enterprise WAN managers (82%) we surveyed indicated that they had already adopted. In 2025, this in style service was extensively accessible with 15 SD-WAN distributors and all of our profiled MSPs indicating they supplied the service.
• Safe net gateway (SWG). SWG is positioned between enterprise customers and the online to implement firm safety and blocking insurance policies and guarantee secure net looking. For distributors this was essentially the most extensively accessible SASE function (16 suppliers). In 2025, 58 MSPs additionally supplied this service.
• Cloud entry safety dealer (CASB). CASB is positioned between enterprise cloud customers and the cloud suppliers and permits organizations to implement inner safety insurance policies and compliance rules. In 2025, 16 distributors and 77 MSPs indicated they might present the service.
• Zero belief community entry (ZTNA). “Zero Belief” safety focuses on verifying customers, validating gadgets, limiting entry and privileges, and utilizing analytics to adapt insurance policies. ZTNA successfully replaces legacy IPsec VPN applied sciences to permit safe tunneling over public infrastructure. This was the second most generally adopted SASE service by our WMS respondents, and in 2025 15 distributors and 66 MSPs included this coverage into their service.

SD-WAN safety service pricing

Whereas a few of these in style safety providers are included in the price of an SD-WAN overlay (suppose conventional and next-generation firewalls, community monitoring, and deep packet inspection), others are usually not. Overwhelmingly, SD-WAN suppliers indicated that a number of core options of a SASE stack fell outdoors of those current safety packages and would incur additional fees for patrons. Zero belief community entry (ZTNA), cloud entry safety dealer (CASB), and safe net gateways (SWG) have been essentially the most generally talked about providers on this class. Most SD-WAN suppliers and MSPs cost for these providers on a per consumer foundation and a number of other have created ‘SASE or SSE bundles’ that embrace all three. For choose distributors coming from a background in safety, these options have been already baked into their NRC fees and didn’t characterize a further value to the shopper.

So how a lot do these extra safety providers value on high of the price of an SD-WAN overlay?

Within the following evaluation we assume {that a} SSE bundle contains ZTNA, CASB, SWG, DLP, and MFA. NGFWaaS fees have been included for these suppliers who indicated it was not baked into their fundamental SD-WAN overlay worth. In 2025, the median worth per consumer for a SSE bundle throughout distributors for a small to medium sized enterprise (at nighttime blue columns within the determine beneath) was $7.21 per 30 days, or $87 per yr. Particular person vendor bundle costs ranged from $4 to $14 per consumer, per 30 days. Sourcing a SSE bundle from a managed service supplier or service was costlier, with a median per consumer worth of $18.13 per 30 days or $218 per yr. Particular person MSP costs ranged from $5 to $60 per consumer per 30 days.

Trying on the determine beneath, you’ll be able to see that some SD-WAN distributors and MSPs supply quantity reductions, discounting safety bundle costs for big enterprise clients. In 2025, the median SSE bundle worth for a big enterprise from MSPs was $15.57 per consumer per 30 days. That’s 14% lower than the median worth for a small to medium enterprise. And whereas the median SSE worth ($7.21) is identical for SD-WAN distributors no matter firm measurement, a a lot bigger variety of SD-WAN distributors reported quantity reductions for safety providers than MSPs. For distributors, reductions for bigger clients ranged from 17% to 40%.

• In 2025, the median variety of workers throughout our WAN Supervisor Survey respondents’ firms was 46,891. For this many customers (depicted within the column on the left) the median annual worth for a SSE bundle can be $4,057,009 from an SD-WAN vendor and $10,201,606 from an MSP. Not an insignificant value when you add all of it up.
• However not each firm must safe gadgets for each worker. In an business comparable to Auto & Vans, the place various workers may go in factories or in dealerships and never want safe gadgets, maybe solely 20% of customers must be secured. The second column in our determine makes this assumption and takes 20% of our median WAN Supervisor Survey worker rely (so 9,379 workers). On this situation, safety prices are a lot decrease, a median worth of $811,471 per yr. That’s 80% lower than our baseline worker rely. The median annual worth from an MSP was $2,040,495, roughly 2.5 instances costlier than sourcing from an SD-WAN vendor.
• On the opposite finish of the spectrum, an business comparable to Enterprise Companies might have to safe a bigger portion of its workforce, say 80%. That is the situation we’ve modeled within the final column. Right here the annual value of the SASE bundle can be $3,245,607 from an SD-WAN vendor and $8,161,285 from a MSP.

SD-WAN  market outlook

SD-WAN is a important element of the fashionable hybrid WAN. However with a shift in buyer focus from site-to-site connectivity to cloud and information middle interconnects, questions have arisen about whether or not the service is as related because it as soon as was. Significantly as these providers usually include inbuilt safety over dependable web connections.

Consequently, SD-WAN suppliers look to differentiate themselves with distinctive service options. Integrating safety providers (notably these included within the SASE stack) into their platforms and forming partnerships with CSPs to supply seamless and safe entry to enterprise functions have been two areas of focus. Managed service suppliers present choices for patrons seeking to make the most of the advantages of SD-WAN, however outsource the administration of each the overlay and underlay. These suppliers supply quite a lot of service tiers to accommodate clients preferences and community necessities.

SD-WAN vendor pricing has clearly turn out to be extra aggressive because the service matures and pricing schemes evolve. Whereas there may be nonetheless a wide range of costs reported available in the market, median worth factors proceed to say no because the market consolidates round a small group of established distributors and suppliers refine their pricing fashions to reposition themselves in a aggressive market. General, the price of an SD-WAN overlay contains a small portion of the whole value of the WAN, making it a worthwhile funding for patrons in areas the place web entry is much less dependable, with on premise information facilities, or these nonetheless seeking to modernize their WAN. Consequently, SD-WAN revenues proceed to develop, notably as DIA utilization surges and enterprise port pace necessities proceed to extend.

Your information to the SD-WAN market

Obtain our complete SD-WAN Information, outlining the specifics of the present vendor panorama so you’ll be able to perceive precisely what’s supplied in the marketplace: distributors, their providers, security measures, and extra. Get the information right here.