WiFi is a good addition to SD-WAN, but not a must

The software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) market continues to flourish, and Mike Fratto, research director at Current Analysis, said he has seen SD-WAN technology combined with wireless capabilities to provide a more complete "branch office" offering.

Mike Fratto said: "Vendors want to get out of the branch office cycle, and they need the branch to do a lot of work, including SD-WAN, security, storage and routing, and in order to provide local area network (LAN) wireless connectivity to the branch, they need to provide WiFi capabilities."

While SD-WAN products do not rely on wireless technology, it is a great way to provide the additional capabilities of SD-WAN technology to its users.

Cliff Grossner, senior analyst at IHS Markit, said that with the right technology, WiFi can be used technically to connect branch offices and manage the migration of remote traffic to the cloud, which is very similar to SD-WAN technology.

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At least one SD-WAN vendor has already integrated WiFi into its SD-WAN products. Xirrus, a wireless vendor recently acquired by Riverbed, will offer WiFi with its SD-WAN product SteelConnect.

In terms of the entire SD-WAN market, Fratto does not believe that WiFi will have a breakthrough performance, but in branch offices, it will be a good market for SD-WAN vendors who are looking for wireless connections to provide value-added services.

Jim Duffy, senior analyst at 451 Research, said vendors that provide infrastructure for branch offices are looking for a single source of orchestration for the branch network, including the wireless network.

"Cisco may be in the lead here, but will face stiff competition from other SD-WAN vendors, including VeloCloud and Viptela (currently in the process of being acquired by Cisco), each of which is looking to replace Cisco as the choice by incorporating wireless capabilities into its SD-WAN offerings," said Jim Duffy.

If the user's connection fails, SD-WAN vendors (such as Cradlepoint) will use 4G LTE for a secondary connection.