Networking manufacturer Lanner and managed service provider GTT this week announced new SD-WAN capabilities leveraging universal customer premises equipment (uCPE).

Lanner, one of several manufacturers of uCPE appliances, will now offer its hardware pre-integrated with Dispersive’s virtualized network (DVN) and container-based SD-WAN software, a move the company claims will bolster network security and boost performance.

"Dispersive's reputation for solving military-grade security and performance is well recognized," said Sven Freudenfeld, CTO of the telecom application business unit at Lanner.

According to Lanner, the combination offers substantial advantages over legacy WAN and SD-WAN, which traditionally utilize at-risk VPNs with IPSEC tunnels for security. By utilizing DVN as an SDN overlay information can be sent across multiple streams improving security, reliability, and performance.

The company claims that by splitting and encrypting the individual streams the network becomes immune to man-in-the-middle attacks because attackers can’t identify the network or what is being transmitted.

As an added bonus, Lanner claims DVN clients typically experience up to a 10-times improvement in performance.

"Lanner's leadership in uCPE and IIoT white box is a great fit with Dispersive's leading secure virtual networking solution," said Dispersive Chief Revenue Officer Chris Swan.

GTT Extends SD-WAN Support to uCPE

Tangentially, GTT announced it had expanded its SD-WAN service to run multiple network applications on a single uCPE appliance.

To do this, the company is leveraging VNFs to deliver services like SD-WAN, firewall, and WAN optimization on the same uCPE device. This reduces the number of physical appliances required.

Utilizing uCPE offers several advantages including lower costs, more efficient delivery of network services, centralized management, and greater flexibility.

Rick Calder, president and CEO of GTT, said the company plans to continue to expand its SD-WAN offerings with additional features on uCPE.

uCPE Demand on the Rise

These appliances are becoming increasingly popular as a means to save money and simplify operations, particularly where SD-WAN is concerned.

In IHS Markit’s most recent “uCPE Hardware Biannual Report,” the market was projected to increase from $7.7 million in sales in 2017, to more $1 billion by 2022.

“Consolidating network functions such as routing, firewall, and WAN optimization on a single device lowers hardware costs and improve agility by making it easier to manage remote offices and roll out new networking services,” said Cliff Grossner, executive director of research and analysis at IHS Markit. “Our research findings indicate that interest in uCPE is growing strongly from enterprises that want to automate management of their edge connectivity and is an increasingly important element used by service providers to deliver SD-WAN.”