Since 2018, we've been tracking the evolving nature of corporate enterprise networks through our WAN Manager Survey. In this seventh edition, we collected 52 survey responses and conducted 13 interviews with WAN managers for additional insight into their network-related decisions and strategies.
Here's what we've seen since we started the WAN Manager Survey: Over the past decade, multiple forces have converged to push enterprises to rethink how they connect corporate offices around the world. The establishment of SD-WAN as a standard network technology, the replacement of MPLS service with more affordable internet, the migration of apps and data to the cloud, and the changes in security strategies enabled by the SASE framework have created a dynamic, though complex environment in the corporate wide area network (WAN) space. Now, AI might come along and further change how enterprises manage their WAN and how they need to connect to resources.
This blog post shares some top-level insights from the WAN Manager Survey results, but the full report is part of our Cloud and WAN Research Service platform. You can also download the executive summary of the WAN Manager Survey here.
Want more WAN? Join Greg Bryan for Lightyear's webinar discussing some of the findings from our WAN Manager Survey and Lightyear's State of Connectivity Report on April 2, 2026 at 1:00 pm ET.
The corporate WAN transformation has fully materialized, characterized by the definitive decline of MPLS (down to an average of 22% of sites) and the dominance of Direct Internet Access (DIA), which connects 54% of sites.
Bandwidth demand is surging toward GigE speeds and above, driven by cloud connectivity and voice/video services.
SD-WAN is now the standard network technology, deployed by 63% of respondents, while security has rapidly shifted toward the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Zero Trust frameworks.
MPLS remains primarily for geopolitical, reliability, and specific quality of service needs, and emerging technologies like AIOps and Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) remain niche but are slowly growing.
Enterprises have firmly shifted away from expensive MPLS services toward hybrid networks prioritizing internet connectivity. This transformation aligns with the widespread adoption of SD-WAN, a continued migration to the cloud, and the implementation of novel security frameworks to secure local internet breakouts.
Hybrid networks are the standard, with DIA emerging as the most common underlay, utilized at an average of 54% of sites and by 96% of respondents. Bandwidth demands have grown significantly since 2018, shrinking the footprint of small circuits (50 Mbps or below) and massively increasing the deployment of GigE ports and above. This bandwidth demand is primarily driven by access to cloud resources, SaaS, and voice/video applications, whereas AI is not yet a significant driver for standard office bandwidth.
Despite its decline, 74% of respondents still use MPLS at some of their sites, primarily due to long transition times, specific Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, and private network security needs. Geography is a major factor, with organizations heavily retaining MPLS in regions like China and Africa to navigate geopolitical challenges, poor internet options, and regulatory complexities.
Satellite remains a connectivity option of last resort, averaging less than 2% of total enterprise sites. It is deployed primarily when no wireline service is available, in extremely remote locations (like the Amazon rainforest), or as a backup for disaster resilience. While Starlink currently dominates, enterprises are eagerly anticipating enterprise-grade Low Earth Orbit (LEO) competitors like Amazon Kuiper and Rivada.
Most enterprise networks feature some level of external management, with only about one third operating totally unmanaged networks. Fully managed networks (42%) and co-managed networks (25%) are typically sourced directly from the underlying service provider. Management strategy is heavily dictated by internal team size: smaller teams outsource to MSPs, while larger teams tend to insource and operate "like an ISP".
Download the executive summary of the WAN Manager Survey.
Driven by the pandemic-accelerated shift to remote work and cloud services, the focus of the WAN has decisively shifted toward security. SD-WAN is widely deployed and integrating with SASE architectures to protect modern enterprise networks. Meanwhile, AIOps is just beginning to emerge as a tool for network management.
SD-WAN is firmly the standard, with 63% of enterprises having it deployed and another 15% currently rolling it out. Organizations value SD-WAN for providing operational agility, standardizing global services, and serving as the foundational block to enable local internet breakouts. While some debate its long-term relevance against endpoint-based SASE, it remains critical for physical branch offices and managing IoT devices.
Enterprises are rapidly adopting the SASE framework, with 53% having already implemented elements and another 23% in the process of doing so. Next-Generation Firewall-as-a-Service (82%) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) (79%) are the most widely adopted elements. ZTNA is heavily utilized to replace legacy VPNs and enable secure local internet breakouts, shifting security from a perimeter model to a "never trust, always verify" posture.
AIOps tools are in the very early stages of enterprise adoption, with only 17% of respondents having deployed them. Early adopters use these tools primarily to ingest and correlate cross-vendor telemetry, solving the "swivel chair" problem for Network Operations Center (NOC) engineers trying to troubleshoot complex issues.
The need to connect corporate offices to multiple cloud providers has significantly increased network complexity, pushing managers to adapt their ecosystems and consider on-demand networking technologies.
The market has seen a massive shift away from strictly on-premises infrastructure. While 75% of respondents still maintain some on-premises data centers, the vast majority use a mix of off-premises options, with public cloud (60%) and private cloud (58%) being nearly equally popular.
NaaS adoption remains flat at 17%, with another 20% having researched the technology and decided not to use it. Its primary use case is providing cloud connectivity and data center interconnection fabrics (like Equinix Fabric) without physical provisioning. However, adoption is limited by strict corporate encryption needs that prevent the use of shared virtual circuits, as well as competition from hyperscalers building their own direct connection infrastructure.
Download the executive summary of the WAN Manager Survey.
The full report from the WAN Manager Survey is part of TeleGeography's Cloud and WAN Research Service. This platform delivers data, analysis, and forecasts on international cloud connectivity and WAN services, and global WAN market size.
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