The data center and cloud networking vendors covered in this market provide hardware and/or software solutions to deliver connectivity primarily within enterprise data centers. This includes data center core/spine switches, access switches (top of rack [ToR], leaf), virtual switching, Ethernet fabrics, network operating systems (NOSs) and network overlays, and the requisite management, automation and orchestration of those components.
Gartner defines SD-WAN offerings as primarily used to connect branch locations to other enterprise and cloud locations. SD-WAN products provide dynamic path selection, based on business or application policy, routing, centralized orchestration of policy and management of appliances, virtual private network (VPN) and zero-touch configuration. SD-WAN products are WAN transport/carrier-agnostic and create secure paths across physical WAN connections. SD-WAN products replace traditional branch routers and enable connectivity between enterprise branch locations as well as the cloud. They facilitate WAN connectivity’s evolution from Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-centric to public internet-centric to support enterprise traffic shifts from private data centers to public cloud and SaaS.