SD-WAN & SASE Solutions Comparison: The Ultimate Shopping Guide

Your company is in the market for an SD-WAN or SASE solution, but as you look at the marketplace you’re feeling overwhelmed by the number of vendors out there.

In this video, I run you through the ultimate shopping checklist to help you narrow down the field and find the best SD-WAN and SASE vendors your company should be quoting.

Want my recommendations on which SD-WAN and SASE vendors are right for your company? 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 YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit and SpiceWorks.

Transcript

Your company is in the market for an SD-WAN or SASE solution, but as you look at the marketplace you’re feeling overwhelmed — Aryaka, Bigleaf, Fortinet, Cato, Cisco, Graphiant, Juniper, Meraki, Palo Alto, Sonic Wall, Velo Cloud, Versa, and that’s just a few of them. In this video, I run you through the ultimate shopping checklist to narrow down the field and find the best SD-WAN and SASE vendors your company should be quoting. Want my recommendations on which SD-WAN and SASE vendors to quote? Ask me today.

My Recommendation

If you’d like a shortcut and want my opinion on which SD-WAN or SASE vendors your company should be quoting — and better pricing on the vendor of your choice — don’t reach out to the service providers directly. Contact me instead. Send me an email or give me a call at 714.593.0011. It won’t cost you anything to get my recommendations, and I will get you better pricing than if you go direct. I’ve been a broker for all the major SD-WAN and SASE service providers for over 20 years. Join the thousands of other IT professionals who have used me to help their company make a better decision in a fraction of the time. Also don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel and go check out AeroComInc.com — you can filter and narrow down service providers by features, read reviews, and write your own.

How Do You Narrow Down the Field?

There are dozens of SD-WAN and SASE vendors out there — probably five times more than the ones listed above. Narrowing them down is actually what I do for a living as a broker. The way I do it is by running through a detailed checklist of questions. That’s exactly what I’m going to walk you through today. Get out a pen and paper — this is the ultimate shopping checklist for SD-WAN and SASE.

Before We Get Into Categories: Two Big Questions First

Before diving into specific categories, there are two foundational questions worth answering upfront. First — are there specific cloud applications your company is trying to optimize? Think Azure, AWS, Salesforce, or any platform where you want to reduce latency or cut egress charges. Second — does your company need to connect your network to outside businesses or customers on a regular basis? If customers need to access your network regularly, how you handle that today and how you want to handle it going forward is going to narrow the vendor field right away.

SD-WAN Requirements Checklist

Global Serviceability

Does your company have global locations or remote users that need to connect into the SD-WAN or SASE solution? Not every provider offers global serviceability, so this needs to be on your checklist upfront if it applies to you.

Global Private IP Backbone

If your company needs to reduce latency between global locations, a provider with a global private IP backbone network is the way to go. Without it, your traffic traverses the public internet globally — and that creates latency, packet loss, and jitter. If low latency across global sites is a priority, this needs to be a must-have on your list.

MPLS Hybrid Capability

Does your company have an existing MPLS network that needs to work in tandem with your SD-WAN solution as a backup? Only some providers support MPLS hybrid configurations, so if that’s a requirement, make sure you flag it early.

Single IP Address for ISP Failover

Do you need the SD-WAN solution to maintain a single IP address so you can fail over from one ISP to another — or load balance across ISPs — for both egress and ingress traffic? Only a handful of providers offer this. If it’s a must-have, it will significantly narrow the field.

SASE Requirements Checklist

AI Visibility

Does your SASE solution need visibility into how your internal AI tools are accessing outside data sources? This is a newer requirement but worth asking about as enterprise AI adoption increases.

Built-In Firewall

Does your SASE solution need a built-in next-generation firewall? Most SASE vendors include one — Cato, Aryaka, Fortinet, and Sonic Wall all do. Bigleaf, however, is firewall agnostic and does not include one. Velo Cloud includes a built-in firewall but it’s stateful only, not next-gen. If you don’t need a built-in firewall at all, you probably just need SD-WAN, not SASE.

Email Security

Do you want to consolidate your email security into your SASE solution? Vendor consolidation is one of the biggest benefits of SASE, and providers like Sonic Wall and Fortinet can bundle email security in. Others do not offer it. Know upfront whether this is a must-have or a nice-to-have.

Intrusion Prevention

Same question applies here. What are you using today for intrusion prevention, and do you want to bundle it into your SASE solution going forward?

IoT Visibility

Does your company need the SASE solution to manage and monitor Internet of Things devices on your network? Some providers offer IoT visibility, some do not.

Secure Remote Access

Do you have remote users who need to access the network securely? Most SD-WAN and SASE providers offer this, but it’s still worth confirming upfront.

Single Pass Architecture

Single pass architecture reduces latency, packet loss, and jitter by inspecting all traffic in a single pass rather than routing it through multiple sequential applications. If reducing latency is a top priority, single pass architecture should be on your must-have list.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR/XDR/MDR)

Do you want to bundle endpoint protection into your SASE solution? Some providers offer it, some don’t. If it’s a must-have, include it on your checklist — it will narrow the field.

Security Service Edge (SSE) Requirements Checklist

CASB — Cloud Access Security Broker

CASB inspects all cloud application traffic, helps with compliance, and guards against malicious activity across your cloud environment. If this is a requirement, make sure you clarify it upfront — not all providers offer it.

Digital Experience Monitoring

Some providers offer digital experience monitoring, some do not. Aryaka and Versa are two that do. If visibility into end-user experience across the network is important to your organization, add this to your checklist.

Data Loss Prevention

Do you want to bundle data loss prevention into your SASE solution? If so, include it on the checklist — it will eliminate vendors that don’t offer it.

Zero Trust Network Access

Are you looking to bundle Zero Trust Network Access into your SASE solution? More vendor consolidation, less complexity. If so, make sure the vendors you’re evaluating actually offer it natively.

Pricing Structure — What Vendors Won’t Tell You

This is the part most vendors won’t put on their website, but as a broker I see it every day and it matters a lot.

Bandwidth-Based Pricing

Some SASE and SD-WAN vendors charge based on the amount of bandwidth you need at each site. One site needs a gig, another needs 200 Meg, another needs 50 Meg — you pay per site based on those bandwidth tiers. If your company pushes large amounts of bandwidth across many sites, this pricing model can get very expensive fast.

Aggregate Bandwidth Pricing

Other vendors look at the total aggregate bandwidth your company uses across all sites combined rather than pricing each site individually. This tends to be more favorable because bandwidth spikes at individual sites even out when you look at the full picture.

Per-User Pricing

If your company uses a lot of bandwidth and bandwidth-based pricing is going to be cost prohibitive, look for a vendor that charges per user instead. Open Systems is one provider that comes to mind — they charge per user, not per bandwidth, which can be a significant cost advantage for high-bandwidth organizations if the other requirements line up.

Metered Pricing

Some providers charge a metered rate based on what your company actually uses on the network — you only pay for what you consume. Graphiant is a provider that uses this model. Depending on your usage patterns, metered pricing can work in your favor.

Additional Services to Consider

Beyond the core SD-WAN and SASE requirements, some vendors can also bundle in ISP services, MSP services, Microsoft licensing, internet circuits, cloud phone systems, cloud storage, and disaster recovery under one provider. Vendor consolidation saves IT departments real time and simplifies management — but it’s always a balance between best-of-breed solutions and single-vendor convenience. Worth factoring in as you build your shortlist.

Want Help Narrowing Down Your SD-WAN and SASE Options?

There are more factors beyond what I covered today, but those are the biggest differentiators. If you have more questions, want demos, or want quotes on any of these providers, don’t call them directly — contact me. Send me an email or give me a call at 714.593.0011. I’m a broker for all the major SD-WAN and SASE vendors, I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, and I don’t charge you anything. I’ll get you better pricing, introduce you to the right salespeople, recommend vendors you may have never heard of, and oversee the entire quoting process. Don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel, check out AeroComInc.com, and leave me a comment below. Thanks for watching — I’ll catch you on the next one.