Frost & Sullivan Names Hughes a Best Practices Leader in Managed SD-WAN for North America
Following a recent analysis of the North American Managed Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) market, the global analyst firm Frost & Sullivan recognized Hughes with its 2023 Customer Value Leadership Award. Frost & Sullivan applies a rigorous analytical process to evaluate multiple nominees for each award category before determining the final award recipient. This year, Hughes also ranked as a leader in the Frost Radar™: Managed SD-WAN Services in North America for the fourth consecutive year.
Stephen Thomas, senior research director, Network Services for Frost & Sullivan, said: “As SD-WAN offerings gain prominence, enterprises are increasingly looking to add more virtualized network functions to their remote locations. In response, many providers offer value-added offerings, such as firewalls, at an additional fee. In contrast, Hughes includes a next-gen firewall service as a standard component of its managed SD-WAN service, helping to keep the client’s network secure.”
As Frost & Sullivan explains in their report, enterprises are turning to SD-WAN solutions to improve flexibility and costs. While the software-based approach to managing branch network technologies enables an enterprise to optimize network traffic based on available broadband paths (e.g., internet, wireless, Ethernet) and application needs, not all managed SD-WAN services are alike. The report cites the most effective SD-WAN solutions as those that best leverage automation and integration to support rapid deployments and highlights some of the ways the Hughes offering stands apart from competitors, including:
- Portals are essential to Managed SD-WAN service. With a single “pane of glass,” the HughesON™ Portal gives customers automated insight into their networks with search-by-site capabilities for new or updated services and hardware.
- Successful installs are critical. The report notes that Hughes has built a methodical support process that gets installations done right with a superior process and industry-leading “day 2” support, which allows for clear visibility to all devices and attached network circuits post-installation.
- Continuous improvement in service performance through artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps). With AIOps functionality across the network, as discussed in the report, Hughes automatically analyzes performance, identifies trends and anomalies and can proactively “heal” the network before issues arise – and alert engineering and operations teams as necessary.
“We’re proud that Frost & Sullivan recognizes our commitment to both exceptional customer service and to innovative technologies, like our AIOps and HughesON portal capabilities, that improve the customer experience,” said Dan Rasmussen, senior vice president, Enterprise Division, Hughes, “Our customers know we’re a trusted and reliable partner that will simplify everything associated with a network, so they can be free to focus on their business.”
A global leader in Managed SD-WAN for enterprise, Hughes manages more than 52,000 SD-WAN locations for over 100 customers spanning retail, healthcare, banking, petroleum, restaurant and government sectors. For each customer, Hughes determines the optimal combination of transport types to ensure superior performance at all sites, integrating and managing broadband access nationwide via wireline, wireless and satellite transports.