Enterprise Community Developments & Technique: WAN Supervisor Survey Insights

Since 2018, we have been monitoring the evolving nature of company enterprise networks by our WAN Supervisor Survey. On this seventh version, we collected 52 survey responses and carried out 13 interviews with WAN managers for extra perception into their network-related choices and methods.

Here is what we have seen since we began the WAN Supervisor Survey: Over the previous decade, a number of forces have converged to push enterprises to rethink how they join company workplaces around the globe. The institution of SD-WAN as a typical community know-how, the substitute of MPLS service with extra reasonably priced web, the migration of apps and knowledge to the cloud, and the adjustments in safety methods enabled by the SASE framework have created a dynamic, although advanced atmosphere within the company broad space community (WAN) area. Now, AI would possibly come alongside and additional change how enterprises handle their WAN and the way they want to hook up with sources.

This weblog submit shares some top-level insights from the WAN Supervisor Survey outcomes, however the full report is a part of our Cloud and WAN Analysis Service platform. You too can obtain the manager abstract of the WAN Supervisor Survey right here.

Need extra WAN? Be part of Greg Bryan for Lightyear’s webinar discussing a number of the findings from our WAN Supervisor Survey and Lightyear’s State of Connectivity Report on April 2, 2026 at 1:00 pm ET.

On this weblog submit:

Key findings

• The company WAN transformation has absolutely materialized, characterised by the definitive decline of MPLS (all the way down to a median of twenty-two% of websites) and the dominance of Direct Web Entry (DIA), which connects 54% of websites.

• Bandwidth demand is surging towards GigE speeds and above, pushed by cloud connectivity and voice/video companies.

• SD-WAN is now the usual community know-how, deployed by 63% of respondents, whereas safety has quickly shifted towards the Safe Entry Service Edge (SASE) and Zero Belief frameworks.

• MPLS stays primarily for geopolitical, reliability, and particular high quality of service wants, and rising applied sciences like AIOps and Community-as-a-Service (NaaS) stay area of interest however are slowly rising.

Community configurations

Enterprises have firmly shifted away from costly MPLS companies towards hybrid networks prioritizing web connectivity. This transformation aligns with the widespread adoption of SD-WAN, a continued migration to the cloud, and the implementation of novel safety frameworks to safe native web breakouts.

Underlay within the SD-WAN age: Product combine and bandwidth demand

Hybrid networks are the usual, with DIA rising as the most typical underlay, utilized at a median of 54% of websites and by 96% of respondents. Bandwidth calls for have grown considerably since 2018, shrinking the footprint of small circuits (50 Mbps or under) and massively rising the deployment of GigE ports and above. This bandwidth demand is primarily pushed by entry to cloud sources, SaaS, and voice/video purposes, whereas AI shouldn’t be but a major driver for normal workplace bandwidth.

MPLS

Regardless of its decline, 74% of respondents nonetheless use MPLS at a few of their websites, primarily resulting from lengthy transition instances, particular High quality of Service (QoS) necessities, and personal community safety wants. Geography is a significant factor, with organizations closely retaining MPLS in areas like China and Africa to navigate geopolitical challenges, poor web choices, and regulatory complexities.

Satellite tv for pc

Satellite tv for pc stays a connectivity choice of final resort, averaging lower than 2% of complete enterprise websites. It’s deployed primarily when no wireline service is obtainable, in extraordinarily distant areas (just like the Amazon rainforest), or as a backup for catastrophe resilience. Whereas Starlink presently dominates, enterprises are eagerly anticipating enterprise-grade Low Earth Orbit (LEO) rivals like Amazon Kuiper and Rivada.

Community administration

Most enterprise networks function some stage of exterior administration, with solely about one third working completely unmanaged networks. Absolutely managed networks (42%) and co-managed networks (25%) are sometimes sourced instantly from the underlying service supplier. Administration technique is closely dictated by inner crew dimension: smaller groups outsource to MSPs, whereas bigger groups are likely to insource and function “like an ISP”.

Obtain the manager abstract of the WAN Supervisor Survey.

Overlay, safety, and AIOps

Pushed by the pandemic-accelerated shift to distant work and cloud companies, the main target of the WAN has decisively shifted towards safety. SD-WAN is extensively deployed and integrating with SASE architectures to guard fashionable enterprise networks. In the meantime, AIOps is simply starting to emerge as a instrument for community administration.

SD-WAN

SD-WAN is firmly the usual, with 63% of enterprises having it deployed and one other 15% presently rolling it out. Organizations worth SD-WAN for offering operational agility, standardizing world companies, and serving because the foundational block to allow native web breakouts. Whereas some debate its long-term relevance in opposition to endpoint-based SASE, it stays important for bodily department workplaces and managing IoT gadgets.

Safety

Enterprises are quickly adopting the SASE framework, with 53% having already applied parts and one other 23% within the strategy of doing so. Subsequent-Era Firewall-as-a-Service (82%) and Zero Belief Community Entry (ZTNA) (79%) are essentially the most extensively adopted parts. ZTNA is closely utilized to exchange legacy VPNs and allow safe native web breakouts, shifting safety from a fringe mannequin to a “by no means belief, all the time confirm” posture.

AIOps

AIOps instruments are within the very early phases of enterprise adoption, with solely 17% of respondents having deployed them. Early adopters use these instruments primarily to ingest and correlate cross-vendor telemetry, fixing the “swivel chair” drawback for Community Operations Heart (NOC) engineers attempting to troubleshoot advanced points.