Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2016.  Read them in this 8th Annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Contributed by Chalan Aras, VP & GM, Delivery Networks, Citrix

The State of SD-WAN in 2015 - and Predictions for 2016

The past year has seen a turning point for software-defined wide area networks, or SD-WAN. Reports and surveys throughout the industry show IT leaders getting fired up about the value of SD-WAN for delivering a better application experience more simply and efficiently. Now, as the market heats up, we can expect budgets to unlock and fuel a move beyond proofs-of-concept to operationalization. With bandwidth-intensive applications placing new demands on corporate networks, SD-WAN offers the visibility, control and flexibility businesses need today-and in the coming year, we will continue to see strong momentum toward mainstream adoption.

Here are five key SD-WAN trends we can expect in 2016.

1. SD-WAN achieves deployment at scale

Over the past year, customers have deployed SD-WAN at small scale to gain familiarity with the technology and understand its value. Now that they've gained confidence in the underlying architecture, they'll be ready to leverage it to cut costs while still maintaining high availability, reliability and security of apps and services for remote or branch office users.

We've already seen the first signs of this movement in industry reports and surveys. A State of SD WAN Report by Metzler and Associates, sponsored by Citrix, found widespread awareness of the technology and interest in its use, with many already making use of its multi-pathing component. A survey conducted during the spring conference of the Open Networking User Group (ONUG) found that 60 percent of attendees were at some stage of deployment, with examples reaching up to 1,000 sites. In 2016, as products mature and enterprises fully assess the value of SD-WAN, we'll see this continue as interest becomes investment.

2. WAN optimization ends as a standalone product area

WAN optimization has played an essential role in helping organizations deliver applications effectively over enterprise networks-but its time is coming to an end. SD-WAN allows IT to centralize network configuration and management with the end-to-end visibility needed to deliver apps and support users more simply and effectively. A software-based approach makes it possible to use intelligent path selection on a per-packet basis for maximum bandwidth efficiency and react to network changes within milliseconds. Application-aware solutions can identify and prioritize mission-critical traffic for access to the best-performing WAN links. Capabilities like these eliminate the need for a separate niche solution to compress or optimize data.

There will still be a few use cases for optimization, such as application acceleration and optimization, but these will be addressed as features of SD-WAN solutions-not by a separate, standalone products. It will be important for enterprises to consider the availability of optimization and acceleration during their SD-WAN selection process.

3. Drivers of SD-WAN adoption intensify

Early network virtualization efforts focused on raw bandwidth, but the rapid growth of real-time services in the enterprise have made it essential to focus on the requirements for high-quality application and media delivery, including network reliability, visibility of apps in the network and the diverse security needs of different types of apps.

The use of IP networks to support video communications and high-quality voice is now a mainstream practice, and online video has emerged as an especially important business tool over the recent years. Microsoft has made a major push for Skype for Business in both SMBs and enterprise, while many traditional PBX providers are going all-cloud. Similarly, solutions like YouTube for Business, Vimeo and Brightcove are now widely used for both internal and customer-facing communications and marketing. The last time I visited an electronics super-store, the associate's first response to my question was to look up a review video. Online courseware marketplaces including Udemy, Lynda.com and Khan Academy have evolved to enable anytime learning through videos and cloud-based services. These types of services call for both ample bandwidth and intelligent, flexible management to deliver the real-time performance users need while helping the enterprise infrastructure adapt to rapidly growing and shifting traffic. SD-WAN will help organizations stay one step ahead while controlling costs.

4. App centralization improves security

Many enterprises have traditionally run apps locally in branch or remote locations due to the inability to ensure consistent bandwidth and reliable connectivity to these locations. This puts the business at risk through the vulnerability of data distributed across multiple compute locations-especially in places with fewer resources to ensure protection. The potential for lost data and compromised customer information, financial liability, and damaged reputation and relationships keep IT on the look-out for opportunities for a more secure approach.

While redundant MPLS circuits have been used in the past, SD-WAN truly offers the ability to centralize apps from the perimeter back to the enterprise datacenter, making it possible to remove app and file servers from branches themselves. This is especially true for virtualized apps and desktops, delivered via Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop, now fully enabled at all branches with an always-on network. The more the WAN can be used to deliver apps, the less need there is for compute in the branch-a shift any IT and security leader can embrace.

5. App delivery unifies across branch and mobile users

Users don't always connect to apps via the WAN, of course. When they're in non-corporate locations, they commonly use SSL VPN infrastructure for secure access. In the coming year, we'll see a unification of the way apps are delivered across both mobile and branch users. Solutions that provide a consistent security, policy and control infrastructure, and across-the-board visibility of user experience between branches served by SD-WAN and mobile users served via SSL VPN can serve as an overall infrastructure for the delivery of mobile workspaces anywhere, over any network. These solutions will provide visibility, security profiles and reliability across both modes of consumption. Along with SDNs in the data center that can form the starting point of visibility, end-to-end architectures that unify application delivery will become an important consideration in buying decisions about enterprise networking.

All in all, 2016 will be an exciting year for SD-WAN. We may still be a year away from true mainstream adoption-though likely not more than that. But there'll be plenty to keep the industry interested and occupied in the meantime, as verticals from banking to retail to healthcare undertake major deployments and realize the value of this vital technology to achieve their application delivery objectives.

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About the Author

Chalan Aras, VP & GM, Delivery Networks, Citrix

As vice president and general manager of the CloudBridge Product group within the Delivery Networks BU, Chalan Aras drives the product development and go-to-market strategy for the company's cloud connectivity and WAN virtualization product line.