Since 2018, we have been monitoring the evolving nature of company enterprise networks via our WAN Supervisor Survey. On this seventh version, we collected 52 survey responses and carried out 13 interviews with WAN managers for added perception into their network-related choices and methods.
This is what we have seen since we began the WAN Supervisor Survey: Over the previous decade, a number of forces have converged to push enterprises to rethink how they join company places of work around the globe. The institution of SD-WAN as a regular community expertise, the substitute of MPLS service with extra inexpensive web, the migration of apps and knowledge to the cloud, and the modifications in safety methods enabled by the SASE framework have created a dynamic, although complicated setting within the company broad space community (WAN) area. Now, AI would possibly come alongside and additional change how enterprises handle their WAN and the way they want to connect with sources.
This weblog publish shares some top-level insights from the WAN Supervisor Survey outcomes, however the full report is a part of our Cloud and WAN Analysis Service platform. You may as well obtain the manager abstract of the WAN Supervisor Survey right here.
Need extra WAN? Be a part of Greg Bryan for Lightyear’s webinar discussing a number of the findings from our WAN Supervisor Survey and Lightyear’s State of Connectivity Report on April 2, 2026 at 1:00 pm ET.
On this weblog publish:
Key findings
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The company WAN transformation has absolutely materialized, characterised by the definitive decline of MPLS (right down to a mean of twenty-two% of web sites) and the dominance of Direct Web Entry (DIA), which connects 54% of web sites.
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Bandwidth demand is surging towards GigE speeds and above, pushed by cloud connectivity and voice/video companies.
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SD-WAN is now the usual community expertise, deployed by 63% of respondents, whereas safety has quickly shifted towards the Safe Entry Service Edge (SASE) and Zero Belief frameworks.
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MPLS stays primarily for geopolitical, reliability, and particular high quality of service wants, and rising applied sciences like AIOps and Community-as-a-Service (NaaS) stay area of interest however are slowly rising.
Community configurations
Enterprises have firmly shifted away from costly MPLS companies towards hybrid networks prioritizing web connectivity. This transformation aligns with the widespread adoption of SD-WAN, a continued migration to the cloud, and the implementation of novel safety frameworks to safe native web breakouts.
Underlay within the SD-WAN age: Product combine and bandwidth demand
Hybrid networks are the usual, with DIA rising as the commonest underlay, utilized at a mean of 54% of web sites and by 96% of respondents. Bandwidth calls for have grown considerably since 2018, shrinking the footprint of small circuits (50 Mbps or beneath) and massively rising the deployment of GigE ports and above. This bandwidth demand is primarily pushed by entry to cloud sources, SaaS, and voice/video functions, whereas AI isn’t but a major driver for normal workplace bandwidth.
MPLS
Regardless of its decline, 74% of respondents nonetheless use MPLS at a few of their websites, primarily as a result of lengthy transition occasions, particular High quality of Service (QoS) necessities, and personal community safety wants. Geography is a significant component, with organizations closely retaining MPLS in areas like China and Africa to navigate geopolitical challenges, poor web choices, and regulatory complexities.
Satellite tv for pc
Satellite tv for pc stays a connectivity choice of final resort, averaging lower than 2% of whole enterprise websites. It’s deployed primarily when no wireline service is accessible, in extraordinarily distant areas (just like the Amazon rainforest), or as a backup for catastrophe resilience. Whereas Starlink at present dominates, enterprises are eagerly anticipating enterprise-grade Low Earth Orbit (LEO) rivals like Amazon Kuiper and Rivada.
Community administration
Most enterprise networks function some stage of exterior administration, with solely about one third working completely unmanaged networks. Totally managed networks (42%) and co-managed networks (25%) are sometimes sourced instantly from the underlying service supplier. Administration technique is closely dictated by inner workforce dimension: smaller groups outsource to MSPs, whereas bigger groups are likely to insource and function “like an ISP”.
Obtain the manager abstract of the WAN Supervisor Survey.
Overlay, safety, and AIOps
Pushed by the pandemic-accelerated shift to distant work and cloud companies, the main focus of the WAN has decisively shifted towards safety. SD-WAN is broadly deployed and integrating with SASE architectures to guard fashionable enterprise networks. In the meantime, AIOps is simply starting to emerge as a software for community administration.
SD-WAN
SD-WAN is firmly the usual, with 63% of enterprises having it deployed and one other 15% at present rolling it out. Organizations worth SD-WAN for offering operational agility, standardizing international companies, and serving because the foundational block to allow native web breakouts. Whereas some debate its long-term relevance in opposition to endpoint-based SASE, it stays important for bodily department places of work and managing IoT units.
Safety
Enterprises are quickly adopting the SASE framework, with 53% having already carried out components and one other 23% within the means of doing so. Subsequent-Era Firewall-as-a-Service (82%) and Zero Belief Community Entry (ZTNA) (79%) are probably the most broadly adopted components. ZTNA is closely utilized to exchange legacy VPNs and allow safe native web breakouts, shifting safety from a fringe mannequin to a “by no means belief, all the time confirm” posture.
AIOps
AIOps instruments are within the very early phases of enterprise adoption, with solely 17% of respondents having deployed them. Early adopters use these instruments primarily to ingest and correlate cross-vendor telemetry, fixing the “swivel chair” drawback for Community Operations Heart (NOC) engineers attempting to troubleshoot complicated points.
The necessity to join company places of work to a number of cloud suppliers has considerably elevated community complexity, pushing managers to adapt their ecosystems and think about on-demand networking applied sciences.
The market has seen a large shift away from strictly on-premises infrastructure. Whereas 75% of respondents nonetheless keep some on-premises knowledge facilities, the overwhelming majority use a mixture of off-premises choices, with public cloud (60%) and personal cloud (58%) being almost equally common.
NaaS adoption stays flat at 17%, with one other 20% having researched the expertise and determined to not use it. Its main use case is offering cloud connectivity and knowledge middle interconnection materials (like Equinix Material) with out bodily provisioning. Nonetheless, adoption is proscribed by strict company encryption wants that forestall the usage of shared digital circuits, in addition to competitors from hyperscalers constructing their very own direct connection infrastructure.
The total report from the WAN Supervisor Survey is a part of TeleGeography’s Cloud and WAN Analysis Service. This platform delivers knowledge, evaluation, and forecasts on worldwide cloud connectivity and WAN companies, and international WAN market dimension.