More HK Companies Seek Safety in SD-WAN
- By CDOTrends editors
- June 14, 2020
Security continues to be the single biggest reason companies still balk at public cloud adoption.
A Barracuda Networks study titled “Secure SD-WAN: The Launch Pad into the Cloud” saw market researcher Vanson Bourne survey 750 executives, individual contributors and team managers from EMEA, Asia Pacific and the U.S.
It found out that Hong Kong companies look at SD-WAN as their answer to allaying security fears about public clouds — more than peer countries across Asia Pacific.
Seventy-four percent said that they either deployed SD-WAN or expect to do so in the next 12 months. It is higher than Singapore (68%) and Australia (65%) in the Asia-Pacific region.
The study showed that SD-WAN is being used by more than half of Hong Kong organizations who have added security to their public cloud.
“As more Hong Kong organizations move to public cloud, SD-WAN technology is a critical part of securing these cloud deployments,” says James Forbes-May, vice president for Asia Pacific & Japan, Barracuda Networks. “By deploying an all-in-one, secure SD-WAN solution natively built into the public cloud network, organizations can reap the full benefits of public cloud.”
The top three benefits for Hong Kong respondents are improved overall connectivity (60%), increased network flexibility and agility (48%) and reduced cost for MPLS services (48%).
With industry sectors, the variations are significant. In the regulated financial services industry, SD-WAN adoption was high with 35% of respondents saying it is already in use. Another 41% are deploying SD-WAN or expect to do so in the next 12 months.
The public sector is the slowest adopter. Only 7% have SD-WAN deployed, and another 36% are deploying SD-WAN or expect to do so in the next 12 months.
When it comes to where many companies prefer to acquire the SD-WAN solution, 34% in Hong Kong said that they will prefer to get it through a cloud provider. In comparison, 26% chose an independent vendor, 22% would choose a value-added reseller, and 16% said they would opt for a telecommunications partner.
Photo credit: iStockphoto/BrianAJackson