Software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) has gained traction and become an industry buzzword for valid reasons. International Data Corp. (IDC) reports seeing more than a 50% reduction in legacy MPLS spends and an approximate 2000% bandwidth increase by adopting hybrid setups (MPLS and internet). Additionally, nearly one-third of enterprises worldwide will adopt SD-WAN by 2023, according to IDC.
Among the many rich advantages of adopting SD-WAN, bandwidth augmentation (the ability to use the internet for enterprise traffic along with MPLS rather than using it as a backup) is an important SD-WAN use case and presents lucrative commercial savings. However, this presents a rather peculiar viewpoint from the perspective of traditional service providers. The legacy MPLS providers stand cornered by the fact that their long-time associated enterprise customers could be planning to move away from the MPLS links they had procured for their WAN connectivity so far.