Whole-market supplier coverage

SD-WAN and SASE, designed around your sites instead of a vendor's diagram

SD-WAN solved a real problem: branch networks built on expensive private circuits and fragile manual configuration. SASE extends the idea, folding security (secure web gateways, zero-trust access, firewall-as-a-service) into the same cloud-delivered fabric. The technology is mature. The buying process is not: the same three letters are sold by carriers, security vendors, appliance makers, and managed providers, each drawing the architecture so their box sits in the middle.

Software Results advises on SD-WAN and SASE as a vendor-neutral party. We design from your sites, circuits, and security stack outward, then run the suppliers who fit that design in competition, including the underlay circuits, because the overlay is only as good as what it rides on.

Schedule a Call Browse the Directory

How to evaluate sd-wan & sase providers

Managed, co-managed, or DIY

The same platform can arrive as licensed software, a co-managed service, or a fully managed offering. Choose based on your network team's real capacity, not aspiration; the wrong operating model is the most common cause of SD-WAN regret.

Underlay strategy

SD-WAN aggregates circuits; it does not conjure them. Evaluate designs that pair diverse, right-sized broadband and DIA per site. A provider who also brings underlay pricing should be compared against separating the two.

Security integration honesty

If SASE is the goal, map which security functions come from the platform, which from your existing stack, and which get retired. Double-paying for overlapping security is the default outcome of unexamined SASE deals.

Application performance evidence

Ask each candidate to demonstrate steering and failover with your critical apps (voice, VDI, SaaS) under induced circuit failure. Convergence behavior differs more than datasheets suggest.

Operations day two

Review the portal, alerting, and change process your team will live with: who pushes policy changes, how fast, and what visibility you keep in a managed model.

The questions to ask every vendor

1.Which operating models do you offer (managed, co-managed, DIY), and what does each cost for our site list?
2.How does your solution behave when the primary circuit degrades rather than fails cleanly?
3.Which security functions are included, and which of our current tools would they replace?
4.Do you provide or resell underlay circuits, and can we buy those separately if the pricing is better?
5.What is the per-site hardware, license, and support cost at our scale, and what does adding a site cost later?
6.How are changes requested and how fast are they executed in the managed model?
7.What visibility and reporting do we retain: per-app performance, per-circuit health, security events?
8.What happens at term end: hardware ownership, license portability, and exit assistance?

How pricing works in this category

SD-WAN prices per site: an appliance (bought or bundled), a software license tier by bandwidth or features, and management fees where a provider operates it. SASE adds per-user or per-site security subscriptions. Underlay circuits price separately unless bundled, and bundling can be either a convenience or a margin stack, so unbundled comparison quotes are essential.

The honest comparison is three-year total cost for your specific site list: hardware, licenses, management, security subscriptions, and underlay, against the security tooling and circuits it retires. MPLS replacement business cases usually fund the project; the variance between suppliers determines how much is left over.

What moves the price

Site count, bandwidth tiers, and high-availability requirements per site
Operating model: managed, co-managed, or DIY
Security scope and what existing tooling it retires
Underlay circuit mix and whether it is bundled
Term length and site add/remove flexibility

Common buying mistakes

Overlay first, underlay never

A beautiful SD-WAN on two circuits from the same conduit fails like one circuit. Design and price the underlay diversity with the overlay, not after it.

Buying SASE while keeping everything it replaces

SASE only pays when overlapping tools retire. Deals that add the platform and keep the old stack deliver double cost and half the simplification.

Choosing DIY with a team of one

Licensed-software pricing looks attractive until policy management, updates, and 2 a.m. failovers land on a single engineer. Price the managed delta against reality.

Ignoring degraded-circuit behavior

Circuits brown out more often than they black out. Platforms differ sharply on detecting and steering around degradation; test it before it tests you.

How Software Results helps

We design the target first: sites, circuits, security scope, and operating model. Then we run the SD-WAN and SASE suppliers in our portfolio against that design, alongside underlay quotes from the connectivity market, so bundled and unbundled paths compete honestly.

You get a comparison in total-cost terms, negotiation with real alternatives on the table, and deployment obligations written into the contract, because cutover across dozens of sites is where good projects earn their reputation.

We represent suppliers across the whole sd-wan & sase market, part of the 600+ supplier portfolio we advise across. You sign directly with the supplier you choose; the supplier pays us, and your price is the same or better than buying alone.

Schedule a Call Send Us Your Requirements

SD-WAN & SASE FAQ

Is SD-WAN still worth it if MPLS pricing has come down?

Usually, but run the numbers. The case is no longer only circuit savings: it is cloud-app performance, faster site turn-ups, circuit flexibility, and integrated security. Where MPLS remains cheap, hybrid designs keep it for specific traffic while SD-WAN handles the rest. We model your site list both ways at no cost.

What is the difference between SD-WAN and SASE?

SD-WAN is the networking layer: intelligent routing across multiple circuits per site. SASE wraps that layer with cloud-delivered security (secure web gateway, zero-trust network access, firewall-as-a-service) under one policy framework. Most organizations phase in: SD-WAN first, security functions as existing tools reach renewal.

Should we buy SD-WAN from our carrier or independently?

Carrier-bundled SD-WAN simplifies invoices and accountability but can couple you to one underlay provider and its pricing. Independent overlay with competitively sourced circuits keeps every layer negotiable. The right answer depends on your team and your leverage; we quote both so the trade-off has numbers.

How long does an SD-WAN rollout take?

After design and pilot, mature providers turn up sites in waves, commonly several per week, with each site's cutover measured in hours. The long pole is underlay circuit delivery at sites needing new connectivity, which is why we start circuit orders alongside platform selection.

Talk to a Technology Advisor

Tell us what you are looking at. An advisor replies within one business day with the market checked on your behalf. No cost, no obligation.

What are you looking at? (choose any that apply)

When does this need to happen?

Two quick steps. No cost, no obligation.