Graphiant
released the results of the
2023 State of Network Edge survey. Respondents say new use cases break existing edge
technologies, such as MPLS and SD-WAN.
"This happens every 10-11 years," says
Khalid Raza, founder & CEO of Graphiant. "I saw this in 2000 while
pioneering MPLS at Cisco. I saw it when I co-founded Viptela in 2012. And now
It's time again for a new approach to the network edge."
Respondents called out three critical uses cases:
- Enterprise connectivity has changed
in recent years, with a surge in remote workers, remote offices, and IoT.
- Cloud connectivity is the second use
case that stretches enterprise capabilities.
- And trends such as digital
transformation and the service economy are pushing enterprises to connect
more often with customers and partners.
"These new use cases are tough for MPLS and
SD-WAN," says Robert Spangler, Senior Network Engineer at Ballad Health.
"MPLS is too slow to deploy and change and far too expensive. And SD-WAN
can't handle that number of tunnels."
MPLS and SD-WAN are Failing
The survey shows enterprises aren't happy with MPLS
and SD-WAN for these new use cases. Network architects gave both technologies
D's and F's for metrics such as scalability, agility, and cost.
Enter Network Edge as-a-Service.
Graphiant's new service provides the speed,
scalability, security, and privacy of MPL but with the agility that modern
as-a-Service delivers.
But, are enterprises ready for Network-as-a-Service?
The answer is a resounding yes, with seven of eight network architects likely
to consider NaaS going forward. One in four say they are extremely likely.