KNOWLEDGE BRIEF

Versa Networks is Recognized as

2018 SD-WAN Company of the Year by
Quadrant Knowledge Solutions

KNOWLEDGE BRIEF
BY
Versa Networks is Recognized as 2018 SD-
WAN Company of the Year by Quadrant
Knowledge Solutions

Quadrant Knowledge Solutions' recent study "Market Outlook: Software-Defined

Wide-Area Network (SD-WAN), 2018-2023" analyses market dynamics, growth
opportunities, emerging technology trends, and the vendor ecosystem of the
global market. Quadrant Knowledge Solutions conducted an in-depth analysis of
major SD-WAN vendors evaluating their products, market presence, and value
proposition. The evaluation is based on the primary research with expert
interviews, analysis of use cases, and Quadrant's internal analysis of the overall
SD-WAN market.

The research also provides a detailed competitive analysis of the primary SD-WAN
vendors, including Cisco (Viptela), Citrix, CloudGenix, Fatpipe, Mushroom
Networks, Nuage Networks, Silver Peak, Talari Networks, VeloCloud, Versa
Networks, Zenlayer, and others.

Key SD-WAN Market Dynamics & Trends

Versa Networks is Recognized as 2018 SD-WAN Company of the
Year

A global increase in internet usage, widespread adoption of cloud applications and

services, and the explosion of smart IoT devices has fueled enormous demand for
reliable, faster, and application specific WAN connectivity. To meet the growing
networking demands, enterprise WAN networks require agility, reliability, and
uptime for optimum application performance. Legacy WAN architectures are
often associated with high capital and operational costs in addition to complex
network operations, slower IT responses, and difficulty in managing branch
network and security infrastructures.

SD-WAN uses software-defined networking techniques in managing and

controlling multiple WAN circuits. It provides separation of network data and
control planes and includes a centralized controller to distribute application,
routing, and network policies. SD-WAN solutions create a network overlay in
order to decouple network software-defined services from the enterprise
underlying hardware systems. SD-WAN's software-centric approach helps in
simplifying branch office networking, improves branch agility, optimizes
application performance, and provides significant cost reduction both in CAPEX
and OPEX.

Quadrant's SD-WAN market outlook research identifies the following trends:

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 • SD-WAN market is moving from early adoption to a rapid growth stage of
the overall product lifecycle due to multiple successful deployments by
large enterprise organizations from multiple industry verticals. These
organizations are increasingly replacing their traditional hardware models
for functions, such as VPN, WAN optimization, application delivery
controller (ADC), and other networking hardware with advanced SD- WAN
solutions.
• Widespread adoption of cloud services (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) in multiple
branch locations and an explosion of IoT devices have significantly
increased the workload and attack surface with potential security attacks.
SD-WAN is increasingly being seen as the next generation networking
solution in the age of digital transformation. It successfully addresses the
challenging requirements of scalability and flexibility of cloud services and
IoT applications and provides network visibility and built-in security to
minimize risks.
• Major SD-WAN value propositions now exceed its initial use case of
offering hybrid WAN architecture and services. Modern SD-WAN offerings
include advanced functionalities, such as centralized management,
automation and orchestration, advanced analytics and application
visibility, and security integration capabilities. Several vendors are also
looking at providing enhanced support for full-fledged IoT infrastructure
and mobility by supporting wireless technologies, 5G, and Gigabit LTE.
• Integration with third-party best-of-breed network security product and
integrated advanced security natively in the SD-WAN service platform is
becoming increasingly important to provide comprehensive security with
branch connectivity. This is also becoming an important differentiator for
SD-WAN technology and vendor selection process. Improved integration
with other security technology enhances network performance and
organization's overall network defenses.
• Communication service providers are increasingly partnering with SD-
WAN providers to offer their own managed SD-WAN services. The service
providers have also emerged as the most preferred vendor for SD-WAN
implementation by enterprise customers and cover 70.3% of the overall
SD-WAN market globally.

Competition Landscape & Analysis of the Global SD-

WAN Market
Versa Networks is Recognized as 2018 SD-WAN Company of the
Year

The global SD-WAN market has a presence of SD-WAN specialists,

networking vendors, and WAN optimization vendors. In addition, security

Copyright 2018 © Quadrant Knowledge Solutions Private Limited

For Citation, info@quadrant-solutions.com
vendors are also looking at offering SD-WAN solutions to tap into the
attractive growth opportunity. However, driven by growing technology
innovation and advancements in value proposition, SD-WAN offerings and
product capabilities from all these different vendors are equally attractive.
As new vendors are grabbing market traction, SD-WAN specialists continue
to improve their offerings with integrated routing, support for WAN
optimization, and added security functions.

Quadrant Knowledge Solutions has conducted a Best Practice analysis of the

global SD-WAN vendors based on performance parameters of strategy,
business, and growth (SBG) performance and industry impact. As per the
analysis, Versa Networks received the highest ratings for SBG performance
and driven by the sophistication of technology platform, technology
innovation, and overall product performance, the company has been
recognized as 2018 SD-WAN company of the year.

"Quadrant's team believes that, with the advanced SD-WAN technology

coupled with the right competitive & growth strategy, Versa Networks has
the potential to cause major disruption in the marketplace."

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA, Versa

Networks is amongst the early SD-WAN technology innovators and its
cloud-native and multi-service software platform approach for SD-WAN,
SD-Security, and SD-Branch solutions have been well received by several
large and mid-sized enterprise customers. Versa has also partnered with
several managed services providers and continues to improve its market
presence in this segment.

Competition Landscape & Analysis of the Global SD-

WAN Market

Versa Cloud IP Platform provides comprehensive SD-WAN capabilities with

its solution components including Versa FlexVNF, Versa Director, and Versa
Analytics.

• Versa FlexVNF is a multi-service, multi-tenant software platform

that enables customers to deploy a wide range of software-defined
solutions, including SD-Routing, SD-Security, Secure SD-WAN and
fully software-defined branch (SD-Branch). It provides both

Copyright 2018 © Quadrant Knowledge Solutions Private Limited

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 networking and security functions in a single unified software
platform along with service chaining capabilities. All virtualized
network and security components are managed centrally through
the Versa Director management platform.

• Versa Director is a virtualization and service creation platform that

simplifies the creation, automation and delivery of network and
security services for the Versa Cloud IP Platform. It provides
management, monitoring, and orchestration services to deliver
Versa and verfied third-party network and security services for
various use cases, including SD-WAN with multi-layered integrated
security, routing and connectivity to direct internet access and
control.

• Versa Analytics is a real-time Big Data solution purpose-built for

Versa Cloud IP Platform -based managed and enterprise SD-WAN,
SD-Security and SD-Branch deployments. It provides contextual
visibility for application, user, device and location, baselining,
correlation, and predictive analytics for network, application usage,
trends, network and security events. It can be integrated into third-
party systems.

Key Competitive Differentiation

Versa Cloud IP Platform offers strong SD-WAN value propositions and delivers
advanced capabilities, such as management of SD-WAN and network optimization,
such as acceleration, dynamic path selection, hybrid WAN, and centralized
administration, management, and orchestration of all connected endpoints,
automation, network security integration, ease of deployment, and such others. In
addition, some of the key technology differentiators include:

• Beyond SD-WAN Capability with SD-Branch: Versa Networks has recently

expanded its capability from SD-WAN to SD-Branch to deliver agile and
secure software-based infrastructure for the entire branch as well as the
WAN. It is now well equipped to enable large enterprises and service
providers to virtualize and software-define the whole branch office and
WAN with its Versa Cloud IP Platform to further reduce complexity and
increase IT agility.
• Enhanced Security: Versa Networks SD-Security solution provides a broad
set of software-based security functions, including next-generation firewalls,
malware protection, URL and content filtering, IPS and anti-virus, DDoS and
next-generation VPN. It helps enterprises in simplifying interoperability of
security and networking, as well as operations of multiple security services

Copyright 2018 © Quadrant Knowledge Solutions Private Limited

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 through centralized management and policy control. It enables IT and
managed operators to dynamically deploy and secure WAN and
application access providing defense in-depth for branch and WAN with a
unified policy and security service framework for their customers.
• Optimized Unified Communication Experience: The company has recently
announced support for over 150 voice and video codecs and MOS (Median
Opinion Score) based policies and reporting. This enable Versa Cloud IP
Platform to provide optimized unified communication (on-premise or
cloud/managed) experience.

Last Word

SD-WAN is now a very well accepted and proven technology in transforming

branch network performance. The important market drivers include SD-WAN
solution benefits in providing agility, performance improvements, ease of use,
lower Capex and Opex requirements, quick ROI, automation and orchestration
capability, network visibility and security functions, and support for organizations
digital transformation initiatives.

Quadrant Knowledge Solutions recommends organizations to consider investment

in an SD-WAN solution that offers comprehensive capabilities to support the
organisation's initiatives in improving their network performance and
advancements in future digital technologies. Users should also look for SD-WAN
solutions with a history of successful large-scale deployments and carefully
analyze the existing case studies of those deployments. This should form the basis
for preparation in leveraging best-practices for SD-WAN deployments. While
selecting vendors and technology platforms, users should evaluate different sets
of vendors from pure-play SD- WAN specialists to well-established networking and
WAN optimization vendors.

According to the Quadrant’s Best Practice Research findings Versa Networks, with
its sophisticated technology platform, technology innovation, and overall product
performance, is recognized as the 2018 Company of the year. The company with
its advanced SD-WAN, SD-Security and SD-Branch solution is well positioned to
help enterprise companies and service providers in achieving significant business
advantage by improving network agility and performance, scalability, enhanced
security, and reduced overall costs.

Copyright 2018 © Quadrant Knowledge Solutions Private Limited

For Citation, info@quadrant-solutions.com