Seven companies qualify for a position on Vertical Systems Group's 2023 U.S. Carrier Managed SD-WAN Services LEADERBOARD as follows (in rank order based on site share): AT&T, Comcast Business, Verizon, Hughes, Lumen, Windstream, and Zayo. Each of these service providers has four percent (4%) or more of the billable Carrier Managed SD-WAN customer sites installed in the U.S. as of December 31, 2023.
“The number of managed SD-WAN sites in the U.S. expanded by 24% in 2023, which was lower growth than expected. Many service providers focused primarily on order fulfillment, upgrading bandwidth, and adding SASE/SSE for existing customers,” said Rick Malone, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “Share gains were led by cable MSOs and providers specializing in mid-size business sectors.”
Seven companies attain a Challenge Tier citation for year-end 2023 as follows (in alphabetical order): Aryaka, Cogent, Cox Business, Fusion Connect, MetTel, Spectrum Enterprise, and TPx. Providers in this tier have between one percent (1%) and four percent (4%) share of U.S. Carrier Managed SD-WAN sites.
2023 SD-WAN Research Highlights
- Rank positions for the top six 2023 SD-WAN LEADERBOARD companies are unchanged from mid-year 2023. Zayo attains the seventh and final position based on U.S. site share, advancing from the Challenge Tier.
- Five companies retain their Challenge Tier citations from mid-2023: Aryaka, Cox Business, MetTel, Spectrum Enterprise, and TPx.
- Two companies advance to the Challenge Tier from the mid-2023 Market Player tier: Cogent (includes Sprint assets from T-Mobile) and Fusion Connect.
- Challenges cited by market leading service providers include delayed purchase decisions due to economic uncertainties, as well as the shifts to WFH or anywhere that are impacting network site requirements. The integration of multiple SD-WAN and SASE/SSE solutions continues to be a challenge for marketing, sales, and technology teams.
- Five of the seven 2023 U.S. LEADERBOARD companies have MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Service Certification as follows: AT&T, Comcast Business, Verizon, Lumen, and Windstream. Spectrum Enterprise is the only Challenge Tier provider with MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Certification.
