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.
