Who are the best SD WAN Providers? (Build your list)

3. Masergy (Comcast Business)

Who is Masergy?

Masergy is a North American company headquartered in Plano, Texas, founded in 2000 to deliver software-defined networking solutions. The service provider offers managed and co-managed, best-of-breed SD WAN and SASE solutions through integrations with leading networking and security vendors delivered over a global network comprising fifty-one (51) points of presence. Comcast acquired Masergy in 2021, but the company has been operating independently since the acquisition.

How does Masergy fit your business needs?

Masergy offers managed and co-managed SD WAN using an Internet-only model, overlying the solution over any private and public network. With this model, customers can "bring their own network" or opt for Masergy's private or public connectivity options, creating an ideal, low-cost alternative for customers with long-term network contracts.

Masergy's SD WAN edge device is a Fortinet product with built-in standard and advanced security features. Masergy also addresses the work-from-home use case with a lightweight Fortinet SD WAN device installed in users' home offices to boost the performance of residential Internet circuits.

From a SASE/SSE standpoint, Masergy offers tiered security services ranging from standard unified threat protection to fully managed security services.

Who are Masergy’s main competitors?

Hughes Network Systems, MetTel, AT&T, and Lumen are Masergy’s top competitors.

What are Masergy’s main SD WAN and SASE features?

Masergy's SD WAN solution is delivered over a global network of fifty-one (51) points of presence (POPs). The solution integrates artificial intelligence via AIOps to predict and self-heal network performance issues and outages by evaluating and automatically redeploying network policies before user impact is experienced. Masergy's most innovative managed SD WAN feature is Masergy Performance Edge, a propriety technology that boosts network performance across low-cost broadband connections, increasing stability and minimizing packet loss.

Masergy’s SASE/SSE features include:

• Next-generation firewall (NGFW) with unified threat protection (UTP), next-generation malware protection, IDS/IPS, URL filtering, and DLP available as standard features in all service tiers
• CASB included in Masergy’s Managed Security Services tier

What are the benefits (pros) and drawbacks (cons) of Masergy?

4. BT

Who is BT?

BT is a British telecommunications company headquartered in London and the largest provider of telephony services in the United Kingdom. The service provider offers managed and co-managed SD WAN solutions from prominent third-party vendors with BT's public and private backbone as the transport, which extends to more than one hundred and ninety-eight (198) countries, connecting to eight (8) public cloud providers in seventy-four (74) cities.

How does BT fit your business needs?

BT offers managed SD WAN solutions from Cisco Meraki, Cisco Viptela, Nuage, Fortinet, and VMWare, with BT's global backbone network as the underlay. BT's universal CPE supports multiple virtual network functions (AFVs) and can be deployed as a virtual CPE in the cloud or a physical edge device. All SD WAN solutions are delivered as managed and co-managed services. BT also offers a SASE solution based on the VMWare SASE platform.

BT's subsidiary in China, BT China Communications Limited, is licensed to operate in China and deliver VPN and Internet services in the region.

Who are BT's main competitors?

BT's main competitors include AT&T, Vodafone, Verizon, Tata Communications, NTT Communications, Singtel, China Telecom Global, and Colt.

What are BT's main SD WAN and SSE features?

BT's SD WAN features vary based on the SD WAN vendor:

• BT with VMWare SD WAN provides dynamic multi-path optimization using VMWare's Dynamic Path Optimization technology and many virtual network functions, including NextGen firewalls, WAN optimization, and traffic acceleration. 
• BT with Cisco Meraki SD WAN offers application prioritization, dynamic path selection, and failover via multiple access methods. 
• BT with Nuage SD WAN introduces support for remote workers and mobile users. 
• Cisco Viptela SD WAN allows customers to deploy secure SD WAN on BT's hybrid underlay, benefitting from intelligent routing and improved application performance.

BT SSE features, powered by the VMWare SASE Platform, include:

• Next-generation cloud firewall
• URL classification and web content filtering
• Inline CASB
• Malware protection
• ZTNA via VMWare Secure Access Service Edge Platform

What are the benefits (pros) and drawbacks (cons) of BT SD WAN?

5. AT&T

Who is AT&T?

AT&T is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with a global presence in more than two hundred (200) countries and the largest share of managed SD WAN locations in the North American market. The service provider offers managed SD WAN and SASE solutions from prominent third-party vendors. The solutions are carrier-agnostic and can run over AT&T's MPLS and Internet backbone or as an over-the-top solution.

How does AT&T fit your business needs?

AT&T offers managed SD WAN solutions based on Cisco, Aruba, VMWare, and Palo Alto Networks and SASE solutions from Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, and VMWare, managed by the AT&T Cybersecurity division. AT&T also offers the FlexConnect platform, AT&T's own managed SD WAN service running on universal hardware and centrally managed from a cloud-based orchestrator. FlexConnect is also available as a self-managed service.

Who are AT&T's main competitors?

AT&T's top competitors include Cato, Masergy, Aryaka, Versa, Cisco, GTT, Lumen, Palo Alto, and Globalgig.

What are AT&T's main SD WAN and SSE features?

AT&T's main SD WAN features include dynamic path selection, dynamic routing, WAN aggregation, and near real-time performance monitoring, enabling optimal traffic delivery across different network transports.

What are the benefits (pros) and drawbacks (cons) of AT&T?

6. COLT

Who is Colt?

Colt is a British company headquartered in London, founded in 1992 as a telecommunications service provider. The service provider offers managed and co-managed SD WAN and SASE solutions through integrations with leading third-party SD WAN and security providers. Colt SD WAN and SASE offerings are delivered over Colt's fully-owned public and private backbone network, the Colt IQ Network, which extends to four continents.

How does Colt fit your business needs?

Colt offers managed SD WAN solutions based on Versa Networks and VMWare, overlayed on its own global private and public backbone network. The company has a significant presence and infrastructure across Europe and the Asia Pacific, with limited coverage in South America, Central America, and Africa. With over five hundred (500) data centers distributed across forty-eight (48) European cities, Colt is an ideal candidate for companies operating out of Europe. 

Colt also offers co-managed SD WAN White Label solutions with a customized client portal.

Who are Colt’s main competitors?

Colt’s main competitors include Orange Business Services, AT&T, Verizon, NTT, BT, and Telefonica.

What are Colt’s main SD WAN and SASE features?

Colt's managed SD WAN solution offers standard and advanced SD WAN capabilities delivered as network function virtualization (NFV) modules in a single branch office device. The standard features include basic application traffic steering and layer 3/4 stateful inspection firewall. The basic application traffic steering feature allows customers to route application traffic via different links based on IP address, network port, protocol, and network performance metrics, such as jitter, latency, and packet loss.

Advanced SD WAN capabilities include deep packet inspection of over 2,600 applications, dynamic multi-path routing based on URL, and layer 7 firewalls with DDoS protection. Colt also offers WAN optimization using packet cloning and Forward Error Correction (FEC) to speed up mission-critical application traffic over low-quality circuits.

Lastly, Colt's SASE/SSE features include a secure web gateway based on Versa SASE.

What are the benefits (pros) and drawbacks (cons) of Colt?

7. GTT

Who is GTT?

GTT is a North American telecommunications provider headquartered in McLean, Virginia, operating a Tier-1 IP backbone spanning more than six hundred (600) points of presence across one hundred and forty (140) countries in six (6) continents. The service provider offers managed and self-managed SD WAN and SASE solutions based on third-party vendors, underpinned by GTT's global MPLS and Internet backbone.

How does GTT fit your business needs?

GTT's SD WAN portfolio includes managed and self-managed solutions based on Aruba Silver Peak, VMWare VeloCloud, and Fortinet technology. GTT offers two specific service plans based to meet its customers' needs, including:

• DIY SD WAN with GTT circuits, a solution that runs on GTT's Tier 1 Internet backbone, allowing the customer to choose the SD WAN technology and network access at every location and manage user and application-level policies
• Managed SD WAN, a turnkey, fully managed SD WAN solution with GTT as the transport network.

Both service packages leverage GTT's network-based SD WAN gateways (universal CPEs) running many virtual network functions (VNFs).

GTT offers a managed, single-vendor SASE solution, Secure Connect, unifying SD WAN with cloud-based security.

Who are GTT's main competitors?

GTT's main competitors include Tata Communications, AT&T, Orange Business Services, BT, Masergy, Verizon, Lumen, and Vodafone.

What are GTT's main SD WAN and SSE features?

GTT's main SD WAN features include application-based dynamic path selection, allowing customers to prioritize mission-critical applications and latency-sensitive traffic. The company also provides a client portal where customers can configure policies and gain insights into network performance and bandwidth utilization per application, location, and user.

GTT's Secure Connect SASE solution offers NextGen FWaaS, malware protection, SWG, and CASB.

What are the benefits (pros) and drawbacks (cons) of GTT?

8. Lumen

Who is Lumen?

Lumen is a North American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, offering self-managed, co-managed, and managed SD WAN and SSE solutions from leading third-party vendors. Lumen's SD WAN solutions run over its global private and public backbone network extending to over twenty-two hundred (2,200) public and private data centers, with direct connectivity to the leading public cloud providers in thirty-three (33) cities.

How does Lumen fit your business needs?

Lumen offers a large selection of SD WAN and SSE technologies, including solutions from Fortinet, Versa Networks, Cisco Viptela, Cisco Meraki, and VMWare. Customers can choose from self-managed, co-managed, or fully managed service models, the latter available through authorized channel partners and system integrators. Customers can deploy Lumen SD WAN based on Versa Networks and Cisco Meraki on any number of locations, while solutions based on VMWare and Cisco Viptela require at least a ten (10) site deployment.

Furthermore, Lumen SD WAN with Meraki does not currently have global availability. All SD WAN options are available with Lumen's private and public backbone network as the transport or as an "over-the-top" solution.

Lumen's SD WAN edge devices can be deployed as virtual machines in the cloud and on-premises or as virtual network functions (VNF) running on universal CPE.

Lumen's SSE solutions are currently available from Fortinet and VMWare, with deployment options in AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Alibaba Cloud.

Who are Lumen's main competitors?

Lumen's main service provider competitors include Tata, AT&T, Vodafone, Verizon, Comcast, Masergy, BT, and GTT.

What are Lumen's main SD WAN and SSE features?

Lumen's standard SD WAN capabilities include performance-, application-, and user-aware routing with WAN optimization and dynamic path selection for minimal latency, maximum performance, and high availability.

Lumen SSE features include:

• FWaaS, including NextGen and L4 stateful inspection firewall with URL content filtering, malware protection, IDS/IPS, DoS protection, DNS security, and DLP
• ZTNA
• SWG with DLP, application control, URL filtering, and malware protection

What are the benefits (pros) and drawbacks (cons) of Lumen?

9. Open Systems

Who is Open Systems?

Open Systems is a cybersecurity-as-a-service company founded in 1990 in Zurich, Switzerland, with main offices in Silicon Valley, California. The vendor's core offerings include carrier-agnostic managed secure SD WAN, cloud-native SSE, and managed detection and response services delivered to more than one hundred and eighty (180) global markets.

How does Open Systems fit your business needs?

Open Systems is ideal for companies seeking managed, unified networking and security solutions with flexible service options. 

Open Systems' flagship service is SASE+, a turnkey, cloud-delivered security and networking solution connecting any edge, remote user, and public cloud over a carrier-agnostic overlay. The solution is available in three flexible service packages, including core SD WAN features, 24x7 level-3 support and monitoring, and technology and hardware management. The Secure SD WAN solution, available as a standard offering across all service tiers, interconnects branch offices and data centers via encrypted tunnels, with local Internet breakouts for optimal Internet and public cloud application performance. SSE features are only available in higher-end service tiers. 

Open Systems manages all aspects of the solution, including SD WAN edge device provisioning, orchestration, and patching, with around-the-clock networking and security monitoring. 

Who are Open Systems' main competitors?

Open Systems' main competitors include Cato Networks, Masergy, Orange Business Services, AT&T, Lumen, and Colt.

What are Open Systems' main SD WAN and SSE features?

Open Systems managed SD WAN runs on top of any public and private backbone. The solution is purpose-built to deliver policy-based application routing and per-app dynamic path selection, mission-critical application prioritization via bandwidth control, and automatic encryption of all user and application traffic with site-to-site IPsec tunnels.

Open Systems offers a complete cloud-based SSE solution that includes DNS filtering, zone-based FWaaS, SWG with integrated CASB, and ZTNA. More advanced security features are available as optional add-ons, including Advanced Threat Protection, Secure Email Gateway, and Cloud Sandbox

What are the benefits (pros) and drawbacks (cons) of Open Systems?

10. TATA

Who is Tata?

Tata is an Indian telecommunications company headquartered in Mumbai, with a global presence in more than two hundred (200) countries and the largest subsea fiber optics network carrying 30% of the world's Internet routes. The service provider offers managed, co-managed, and self-managed SD WAN solutions based on in-house-developed and best-of-breed third-party technology underpinned by Tata's MPLS and Internet backbone.

How does Tata fit your business needs?

 Tata's signature service is IZO SDWAN, a cloud-native SD WAN solution based on Cisco SD WAN and Versa Networks technology. The solution is offered globally across one-hundred and fifty (150) countries, with a cloud-based portal automating policy, user, and branch deployments. Customers can choose from managed, self-managed, and co-managed service models and use Tata's global backbone to underlay or bring their network. 

With managed IZO SDWAN, Tata oversees and manages all aspects of the solution, including design, deployment, configuration, site adds, moves, and changes.

Who are Tata's main competitors?

Tata's main competitors include Tejas Networks, Orange Business Services, AT&T, Vodafone, Lumen, Verizon, Masergy, GTT, and BT.

What are Tata's main SD WAN and SSE features?

Tata's main SD WAN features include:

• Dynamic application-aware routing.
• Self-service WAN optimization.
• Virtual network functions (VNF) service chaining.
• Dynamic load balancing.
• Advanced reporting.

Multiple security features are built directly into the SD WAN edge device, including a layer-7 firewall, layer-4 stateful inspection firewall, URL filtering, and DoS protection. Additionally, cloud-based security features are available, including a secure web gateway, anti-DDoS, virtual UTMs, and CASB.

What are the benefits (pros) and drawbacks (cons) of Tata?

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