Cisco continues to maintain dominance over the SD-WAN technology market
Key Highlights
- Cisco leads the SD-WAN market with strong revenue growth and maintains top ranking on the VSG U.S. SD-WAN Technology LEADERBOARD.
- Market consolidation is evident as major vendors acquire SD-WAN technology, expanding their capabilities and market presence, especially in wireless and 5G segments.
- Enterprises are increasingly adopting SD-WAN solutions integrated with security, SASE, and AI, with providers offering flexible, multi-vendor managed services to meet diverse needs.
Cisco remains the vendor to beat in the SD-WAN technology market, maintaining its position and strong momentum across its networking and security units for Enterprise, Public Sector, and Service Provider & Cloud customers.
Evidence of the vendor’s progress in SD-WAN was evident in its second-quarter Fiscal Year 2026 results, where it reported $8.8 billion in networking revenue and $2.1 billion in security revenue.
With total product orders up 18% year-over-year, Cisco reported gains of 8% in enterprise, 11% in Public Sector, and 65% in Service Provider & Cloud.
All of these results likely contributed to Cisco's ability to retain its top ranking on Vertical Systems Group’s (VSG) year-end 2025 U.S. SD-WAN Technology LEADERBOARD.
VSG noted that six companies qualify for a rank position on the Technology LEADERBOARD (ranked by site share): Cisco, Arista Networks, Fortinet, HPE Aruba Networking, Versa Networks and Ericsson. The SD-WAN Technology LEADERBOARD was extended from five to six companies with the addition of Ericsson.
The research firm’s latest benchmark quantifies U.S. market presence among technology suppliers that enable Carrier Managed SD-WAN solutions.
Each of these six technology suppliers has 4% or more of the total number of U.S. Carrier Managed SD-WAN customer sites installed and billable as of December 31, 2025.
In its analysis, VSG noted a site is counted once per supplier, regardless of the amount of SD-WAN equipment installed at the customer location.
“Leading SD-WAN Technology Suppliers are helping to fuel the expansion of the SD-WAN market, which currently extends to greater than half a million U.S. customer sites,” said Rosemary Cochran, Principal of Vertical Systems Group. “We anticipate ongoing updated solutions from SD-WAN technology providers, particularly advanced security enhancements, centralized network orchestration, application visibility and AI integration.”
A consolidating market
As SD-WAN technology continues to evolve and more enterprises adopt it, the vendor market continues to consolidate.
Four of the six LEADERBOARD vendors offer acquired SD-WAN technology: Cisco (Viptela), Arista Networks (VeloCloud), HPE Aruba (Silver Peak and Juniper) and Ericsson (Cradlepoint).
Ericsson’s acquisition of Cradlepoint enabled the Swedish vendor to capture a position in the fast-growing wireless WAN edge market. Demand for pervasive, reliable, and secure network connectivity is important in today’s highly distributed IT and application environment. With a focus on providing secure, reliable wireless solutions for enterprises, Ericsson can combine its SD-WAN capabilities with its 5G portfolio, which includes private cellular networks, mobile network deployments, and neutral-host offerings.
VSG said that with SD-WAN market consolidation, the 2025 LEADERBOARD threshold has been lowered to 4%. The Market Player tier now tracks Technology Suppliers with less than four percent (4%) share of U.S. Carrier Managed SD-WAN sites.
Diverse needs, strategies
While a growing crop of enterprises and smaller businesses are migrating away from legacy technologies like MPLS and private lines to SD-WAN, vendors are honing their solutions to accommodate a diverse range of requirements and evolving needs.
VSG noted that business customers continue to demand SD-WAN and SSE best-of-breed solutions, often from multiple technology suppliers.
Comcast Business, which was ranked first on year-end 2025 Vertical Systems Group’s U.S. provider of Managed SD-WAN services LEADERBOARD for the first time, pairs its Managed SD-WAN with Dedicated Internet and additional managed cybersecurity solutions.
The cable MSO works with several SD-WAN vendors, including Fortinet (SASE), Cisco (security and cloud visibility), Versa Networks (single-site and multi-site platforms), HPE (edge routing), and Ericsson (Cradlepoint’s wireless SD-WAN).
Likewise, AT&T offers managed SD-WAN solutions in partnership with three technology vendors: Cisco, VMware, and HPE. These services allow businesses to mix and match traditional MPLS and broadband lines while using AT&T's network and security management expertise.
Despite the potential and utility of SD-WAN, enterprise customers are prolonging decisions about whether to augment their existing SD‑WAN solutions or pivot to more integrated SASE/SSE frameworks.
VSG said that enterprises and businesses are considering SD-WAN solutions that incorporate SASE upgrades, SSE offerings, and integrated security features.
AI will also be a factor. The research firm said that the growing adoption of AI will enable more automated SD-WAN services, while NaaS offerings focus on delivering scalable, secure connectivity to customers.
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About the Author
Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategy of Lightwave across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products.
