Enterprises Turn to SDN to Reduce Costs, Better Serve Customers

ISG Provider Lens report finds many enterprises adopting SDN technologies to give them more network flexibility

STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enterprises across the globe are looking to transition from traditional networking technologies to software-defined network services to reduce costs, migrate operations to the cloud and improve response time and overall customer experience, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The ISG Provider Lens Networks – Software Defined Solutions and Service Partners Archetype Report finds the adoption of SDN and related technologies high on corporate agendas. In many cases, enterprises are moving from pilot tests of SDN solutions to commercial-scale deliveries. Along with cloud adoption, the transition to SDN is driving massive and rapid change throughout the enterprise and technology and service provider communities.

“SDN technologies allow the delivery of agile, flexible and cost-effective connectivity to support the digital roadmaps of corporate business transformation,” said Jan Erik Aase, director and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “Enterprises are looking to adopt SDN technologies as a way to future-proof their business models and reduce risk.”

Several factors are driving the transition to SDN technologies, the report says. Enterprises are increasingly focused on migrating their IT and network operations to the cloud, and SDN reduces complexity and enables a low-risk migration to cloud environments.

In addition, enterprises have become increasingly focused on improving the integration, automation, orchestration and management of network resources and processes, often as part of their overall digital transformation strategy. This has evolved to encompass network function virtualization (NFV) and has led to software-defined networking in a wider sense.

Enterprises are also looking for ways to improve network efficiency while reducing usage costs even beyond the savings achieved by adopting an NFV strategy, the report says. This is particularly relevant with the explosion of data usage in mobile devices, often in areas that are not business-critical, such as social media applications or related services. Traffic can be routed over lower-cost connections automatically through software-defined pathways with little human intervention.