The concept of software defined networking (SDN), while in existence since the 1990s, is attaining greater relevance today. This is mainly due to the growing role of consumer technology, the rise of big data, cloud services and globally distributed networks. In fact, the cloud allows the concept to now be extended to the wide area network (WAN) as well.

In fact, enterprises now need to take a critical look at their enterprise WAN Edge, which Gartner describes as the ‘focus of new architectural approaches’. Gartner further mentions that SD-WAN, network function virtualization (NFV) and alternate delivery models are expected to disrupt the IT ecosystem over the next few years.