Research firm IDC released results of a new study that showed over 95% of enterprises have deployed SD-WANs or plan to do so within the next 24 months – but they are liable to experience challenges when attempting to adopt the technology on their own.

Respondents in the GTT-sponsored study cited difficulties related to hiring and retaining a skilled in-house workforce, keeping up with technology developments, and the ability to “negotiate favorable terms with technology vendors” as challenges they faced when taking a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to SD-WAN.

“Many decision makers don’t have the experience to navigate the complexity across the litany of software-defined networking technologies to determine each one’s strengths and weaknesses and to make an educated and informed decisions that ensure the selection will meet their business objectives,” GTT SVP Todd Kiehn told SDxCentral.

“If a decision maker selects a technology that does not deliver against expectations, an unfortunate outcome is that the company will not realize the expected cost savings.”

The top reason cited by respondents (36%) globally for using a managed services provider (MSP) was the benefit of always-on help desk support in local languages, while a close 35% cited visibility, insights, and control without the need for technology certification as a benefit.

“[Managed service providers] can manage and maintain the SD-WAN solution on the business’s behalf and can also procure and manage the underlying network,” Kiehn said. “This provides a single source of accountability and reduces the burden on the in-house IT team by acting as an extension to help with design, deployment and support.”

Kiehn predicts there will be a continued evolution to SD-WAN integrated with cloud security over the coming year. “The IT organization is going to require ever-increasing visibility into the actions of the end user through a digital experience management tool,” he said.

Integrating visibility into a single web portal experience allows the IT team to not only self-service their security profiles, but improves visibility into their infrastructure and public cloud infrastructures that they do not directly manage.

IDC reported 34% of respondents cited ease of configuration management; the ability to manage, maintain, and facilitate technology upgrades; and better protection against security threats as motives for using a managed services provider.

However, IDC also indicated that “an almost equal” number of companies take a multi-vendor or best-of-breed approach as do a single vendor/service provider approach, or even no particular approach at all.

The advantages of a looser approach, including “breadth of choice and relative ease of switching out vendors” are offset by the advantages of a more tightly integrated approach, such as more assurance of interoperability and less manual configuration, according to the research firm.

“Just as the approaches to SD-WAN itself are many and varied, so too are the ways that organizations are implementing SD-WAN-related security,” the IDC report said. “Overall, there is no clear consensus on best practice, no necessarily right or wrong answer.”

That said, IDC recommends organizations looking at SD-WAN work with their partners to understand and define their security requirements from the start of the engagement to maximize the likelihood of a successful security outcome. Those that don’t are much more likely to need to take "post-implementation remedial action or, worse, to potentially be left with inadequate protection.”