Orange Business Services, AT&T, and Verizon topped Vertical Systems Group’s latest leaderboard for global carrier-managed SD-WAN. The three are joined by NTT, BT, Telefonica, and Vodafone.

The report is a new one for Vertical Systems Group and looks exclusively at globally distributed SD-WAN service providers.

“We have done U.S. leaderboards for several years because the market here has evolved much more quickly,” said Rosemary Cochran, principal analyst and co-founder of Vertical Systems Group. Part of this was that global networks are far more complex to manage and administer compared to domestic SD-WAN offerings, often requiring service providers to negotiate contracts with multiple countries, meet diverse regulatory requirements, and support numerous network technologies.

To account for this, service providers had to hold at least 5% of billable retail sales outside their home country, in order to be considered a market leader.

Vertical Systems Group singled out Orange Business Services as having by far the largest number of customers outside its home country of France. However, analysts declined to share the degree to which Orange leads its competitors.

The report did, however, find all seven leaders had substantial presences in at least three of the five regional markets: North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

The report also identified 12 market challengers with between 1% and 5% of billable SD-WAN sales outside of their home markets. Challengers included Aryaka, Colt, Deutsch Telekom, Global Cloud Xchange, GTT, Hughes, Lumen, PCCW Global, Singtel, Tata, Telia, and Telstra.

Cisco, Fortinet, Aruba, Nokia Nuage, Versa Networks, and VMware were noted as the primary technology providers powering these managed SD-WAN offerings.

Cochran noted that changing workforce dynamics over the past year, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, have introduced additional security concerns. This has resulted in SD-WAN offerings that incorporate security functionality, often from multiple vendors, she added.

However, the effects of COVID-19 on the global SD-WAN market go beyond security.

“COVID-19 impacted basically all of the services in one way or another,” Cochran said. These challenges included the normalization of remote and hybrid work, as well as ongoing supply chain challenges, which have disrupted the industry as a whole.

Even “just being able to get the equipment and to be able to support the services” has been disrupted, she said.

Editors note: This story has been updated to clarify the qualification requirements for the leadership category.