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State of the WAN 2022

Shashi Kiran
Aryaka Networks

Aryaka has been producing its annual State of the WAN report for six years now. This year's report, the most ambitious yet, surveyed 1,600 global enterprise decision makers from a cross section of verticals about the current and future use of their WANs. This blog highlights the report's four most compelling findings; enterprises are betting on hybrid workplaces; technology investments are on the rise with a focus on digital transformation; increased focus on visibility, observability and management; and the progression/concerns around secure access service edge (SASE) adoption.

The Hybrid Workforce is Here to Stay

While the pandemic forced enterprises to uproot their traditional network infrastructures to better accommodate masses of people working from home or alternate locations, they are coming to grips with a new reality including many issuing decrees that many employees may never return to the office.


Figure 1

The above figure illustrates that no matter where an enterprise is in their network evolution, they are putting a lot of emphasis on employee productivity. And they're doing it through predictable connectivity and collaboration platforms. This has led to increased investments in the WAN, security stack and other infrastructure requirements.

Those enterprises putting money behind real estate are doing so with the mindset to avoid duplicity and cost stacking. As they navigate this change, dynamic bandwidth allocation between sites and users, as-a-service consumption models, and cloud-delivered centralization are all becoming the new standard.

Technology Investments are Up as is the Focus on Digital Transformation

Enterprises that have historically been cost-conscious are now seeing new technologies as a key competitive differentiator. This is seen by their acceleration in spending. But, due to supply chain disruptions, chip shortages and more, we're seeing new initiatives slow down, which is also slowing their pace towards digital transformation. For example, any money saved from real estate, utilities, travel reductions and more are being invested into technology stacks that push transformative initiatives that are keeping their overall budget the same.


Figure 2

In the figure above, it's clear that enterprise cost savings have had a firm impact on network and security budgets. 25% of those surveyed are expecting their budgets to go up by 25% or more, while just about all predicting at least a 10% spike in investments in their network and security infrastructure. What's more, the data shows investment/consolidation occurring with collaboration software, productivity tools and cross-company planning initiatives. This makes sense when looking at it from a hybrid workforce perspective. Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Teams have become more popular over the last year, and SaaS applications have taken off.

This trend will only speed up cloud-first adoption and will further accelerate SD-WAN adoption and maybe even lay the groundwork for SASE adoption.

Visibility, Observability and Management are Enterprise Fundamentals

The speed of change enterprises have seen during the pandemic has resulted in network architectural shifts that include moving on prem deployments to the cloud, cloud-native application modernization, changes to network security architectures, the shift to as-a-service consumption models, and the unification of formerly siloed technologies.


Figure 3

The survey data really highlighted that enterprise IT operations are looking for increased visibility in these changing times. That, along with monitoring and management are being prioritized. Historically, they had all been considered afterthoughts. In short, today, it's all about observability.

SASE's Promises and Concerns

On a positive note, the "promise" of SASE architectures is compelling. Due to time and cost savings, increased agility, etc., many of those surveyed believe SASE is a tangible option. (See figure 4) Of course, there are those who are more pragmatic, and understand that the shift to SASE is not going to happen overnight, as it will require much planning and evaluating all risk. They know the immense complexity around security and core connectivity. (See figure 5) Those who have rallied behind a multi-vendor strategy, also feel that trusting a single vendor to do everything is a bit concerning. What's not surprising is the growth we're seeing in enterprises evaluating managed SASE solution providers that include SLAs as-a-service.


Figure 4


Figure 5

Shashi Kiran is CMO at Aryaka Networks

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

State of the WAN 2022

Shashi Kiran
Aryaka Networks

Aryaka has been producing its annual State of the WAN report for six years now. This year's report, the most ambitious yet, surveyed 1,600 global enterprise decision makers from a cross section of verticals about the current and future use of their WANs. This blog highlights the report's four most compelling findings; enterprises are betting on hybrid workplaces; technology investments are on the rise with a focus on digital transformation; increased focus on visibility, observability and management; and the progression/concerns around secure access service edge (SASE) adoption.

The Hybrid Workforce is Here to Stay

While the pandemic forced enterprises to uproot their traditional network infrastructures to better accommodate masses of people working from home or alternate locations, they are coming to grips with a new reality including many issuing decrees that many employees may never return to the office.


Figure 1

The above figure illustrates that no matter where an enterprise is in their network evolution, they are putting a lot of emphasis on employee productivity. And they're doing it through predictable connectivity and collaboration platforms. This has led to increased investments in the WAN, security stack and other infrastructure requirements.

Those enterprises putting money behind real estate are doing so with the mindset to avoid duplicity and cost stacking. As they navigate this change, dynamic bandwidth allocation between sites and users, as-a-service consumption models, and cloud-delivered centralization are all becoming the new standard.

Technology Investments are Up as is the Focus on Digital Transformation

Enterprises that have historically been cost-conscious are now seeing new technologies as a key competitive differentiator. This is seen by their acceleration in spending. But, due to supply chain disruptions, chip shortages and more, we're seeing new initiatives slow down, which is also slowing their pace towards digital transformation. For example, any money saved from real estate, utilities, travel reductions and more are being invested into technology stacks that push transformative initiatives that are keeping their overall budget the same.


Figure 2

In the figure above, it's clear that enterprise cost savings have had a firm impact on network and security budgets. 25% of those surveyed are expecting their budgets to go up by 25% or more, while just about all predicting at least a 10% spike in investments in their network and security infrastructure. What's more, the data shows investment/consolidation occurring with collaboration software, productivity tools and cross-company planning initiatives. This makes sense when looking at it from a hybrid workforce perspective. Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Teams have become more popular over the last year, and SaaS applications have taken off.

This trend will only speed up cloud-first adoption and will further accelerate SD-WAN adoption and maybe even lay the groundwork for SASE adoption.

Visibility, Observability and Management are Enterprise Fundamentals

The speed of change enterprises have seen during the pandemic has resulted in network architectural shifts that include moving on prem deployments to the cloud, cloud-native application modernization, changes to network security architectures, the shift to as-a-service consumption models, and the unification of formerly siloed technologies.


Figure 3

The survey data really highlighted that enterprise IT operations are looking for increased visibility in these changing times. That, along with monitoring and management are being prioritized. Historically, they had all been considered afterthoughts. In short, today, it's all about observability.

SASE's Promises and Concerns

On a positive note, the "promise" of SASE architectures is compelling. Due to time and cost savings, increased agility, etc., many of those surveyed believe SASE is a tangible option. (See figure 4) Of course, there are those who are more pragmatic, and understand that the shift to SASE is not going to happen overnight, as it will require much planning and evaluating all risk. They know the immense complexity around security and core connectivity. (See figure 5) Those who have rallied behind a multi-vendor strategy, also feel that trusting a single vendor to do everything is a bit concerning. What's not surprising is the growth we're seeing in enterprises evaluating managed SASE solution providers that include SLAs as-a-service.


Figure 4


Figure 5

Shashi Kiran is CMO at Aryaka Networks

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...