How Much Does SD-WAN Cost in 2023?

March 22, 2023 Minh Le

How much does SD-WAN Cost in 2023?

I talk about the cost of SD-WAN in 2023, which depends on the provider’s pricing model. Some providers charge based on bandwidth usage and others charge by circuits. By evaluating these pricing models, we can select a provider that aligns with the specific business needs.

Want my recommendations on the best SD-WAN solutions that your company should quote? Click the button below to ask me today.

About Me

Mike Smith has been helping companies select the best telecom, WAN, security, and cloud services since 1999. He founded AeroCom in 2003, and has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards, including being recognized as one of the top 40 business people in tech-heavy Orange County, CA. Follow Mike on YouTubeLinkedInReddit and SpiceWorks.

Transcript

Today’s video is going to be about SD-WAN pricing in 2023. So.SD-WAN something that was getting pretty big, then the pandemic hit and everybody went and started working from home, which in a lot of ways dampened the SD win surge. But now that everybody’s going back to the offices, SD-WAN coming back up again, and a lot of customers are calling me, talk to me about it. So I wanted to make a video just updating everybody on how much SD-WAN costs in 2023.

Which best SD-WAN solutions should your company quote?

But before I get too deep into it, a quick plug if you’d like my recommendations on the best SD-WAN vendors that your company should be quoting, contact me, by email or by phone (714.593.0011). I’m happy to help. I’d love to hear from you. And also, if you’d like the video, don’t forget to hit the like and subscribe button down below.

SD-WAN: On Prem Only

So how much does SD-WAN cost in 2023? Well, the first thing I want you to do is I want you to go and watch my old video that I did maybe three or four years ago on the three different types of SD-WAN architecture. That’ll give you kind of a basis for what I’m about to talk about.

All right. So the first architecture that I want to talk about pricing for is on prem only. How much does that cost? Well, that’s it’s kind of hard to determine because what that is, that’s really a glorified firewall at every one of your sites. So what you’re looking at there is getting like a Meraki device or Fortinet device that every single one of your sites and enabling SD-WAN on that device.

And and then how much is that? Cause it’s usually a one time CapEx cost. So that’s the main thing I wanted to explain is just that’s a one time cost. Typically, typically an on prem only solution is not an ongoing cost in CapEx cost. If it is, it’s like a managed service where they deliver on prem devices to all your sites and they’re just you’re just giving you like a management fee for that so that you don’t have any maintenance on those devices.

And that’s usually about maybe like in these words, 75 to $100 per month per site to manage that on prem only device. So that’s how much on prem only SD-WAN solutions cost

Cloud Enabled SD-WAN Solution

A cloud based SD-WAN solution or what I call in that video you watched. Hopefully cloud enabled SD-WAN architecture vendor is going to typically cost around $200 per month per site.

And I would say I’d break that up a little bit. I’d say that some of those vendors charge by bandwidth per month, some of them charge by the number of circuits attached to the SD-WAN appliance at every single site.

Cloud Enabled SD-WAN Solution: Bandwidth

So let’s take bandwidth, for instance, bandwidth. If you need about 200 megs of bandwidth at each of your sites, it’s probably going to cost about $200 per month per site for SD-WAN. Now, bandwidth, how do they do that? So if you have if you want a 500 meg connection, if you want all 500 makes to have SD-WAN service on it, it’s going to be more expensive. It’s the price is going to start to go up. You’re starting to get to be, you know, $400 or so per month per site, a gig. You might be looking at five, six, $700 per month per site, depending on the vendor and if you want additional features. So that’s a service provider that’s going to charge for bandwidth for SD-WAN.

Cloud Enabled SD-WAN Solution: Circuit

now there’s also cloud enabled. SD-WAN service providers that charge per circuit. So those are going to be a better fit if you need high bandwidth at each site.So for instance, those service providers, a lot of times are maybe about $200 per month per site for one circuit and then for each additional circuit, a lot of times they only charge 25 to $50 per month per site additional for each additional circuit that you add to the SD-WAN service. And they’ll usually allow up to about a gig worth of bandwidth.

Bandwidth vs Circuits

So you can see if you have a small amount of bandwidth in multiple circuits, you might want to go with a service provider that charges for bandwidth. But if you need a lot of bandwidth and you know whether or not you have one or two circuits, you know, the main thing is if you need a lot of bandwidth and you want a cloud enabled. SD-WAN solution, you’re going to want to find a service provider that charges for circuits, not bandwidth. I hope that makes sense.

SD-WAN Solution that includes security

A little step further, a cloud enabled SD-WAN solution that includes security. Today we call that SASE secure access Service edge. That’s the new term out there for a cloud enabled SD-WAN solution that includes cloud security. So how much does that cost? Well, I would say at about 20% on to the cost. I just explained for a cloud enabled solution. So if you want to add cloud enabled security like next gen firewalls at all your sites, you know, any type of next gen security added into the SD-WAN solution, I’d say add about 20% to the pricing I just explained earlier. So, it’s probably going to cost, you know, maybe 50 to $100 per month more per site depending on the security solution that you guys are looking at and how advanced the security features are that you need.

Cloud Enabled SD-WAN Solution that includes the actual backbone network

Okay. Now, one step further. A cloud enabled solution that includes the actual backbone network. So what that is, that’s a cloud enabled SD-WAN solution where the service providers, data centers, the SD-WAN data centers are connected with their own private backbone, those types of services, I would say at about 10% in price to the cloud enabled solution. That’s probably about how much you’re going to pay more than just a normal cloud enabled solution. And what that those. SD-WAN again go back to the video but that that’s going to provide you a little bit more control over the packets going you know if you’re if you’re sending a lot of communication from one site to another over like an international span or all the way across the United States, things like that, that might be a solution you need and it’s going to be a little bit more expensive.

SD-WAN Pricing 2023

All right. So that’s how much SD-WAN costs in 2023, roughly. Obviously every vendor is going to be a little bit different in cost. And as you add features and add sites, pricing changes a little bit. So if you’d like to know the best service providers to quote for SD-WAN service, don’t Google it. You’re going to find tons of them out there You’ll probably end up with the wrong one. Instead, just reach out and contact me, by email or by phone (714.593.0011). That’s my job. I’m a broker for all the major SD-WAN service providers, and so I’ll ask you a few questions. And based on your answers to those questions, I’ll find the service providers that have a specific niche for your type of organization and are going to price out best all, you know, bandwidth pricing versus circuit pricing, all that good stuff. Security. I’ll match you up with the best vendors. I’ll introduce you to the best reps at those companies and I’ll oversee the quoting process to make sure you get the best pricing from the vendor of your choice. And the nice thing is, is I won’t charge you a thing for my service. All the service providers pay me my broker fee so you don’t have to pay me anything.

So there’s absolutely no excuse not to at least reach out and see what I think about your application. And if you like the video, if you got something from it, that’s definitely a way you could say thank you is reach out to me for a quote. I’m happy to help. So hopefully I’ll be hearing from you. At the very least, I’ll catch you on the next video.

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