The top SD-WAN vendors for the manufacturing sector include: Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks (Prisma), Barracuda, Versa Networks, Cisco Catalyst, Cisco Meraki, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, VMware VeloCloud, Aryaka, Cato Networks, Juniper Networks, Citrix, Cradlepoint, Peplink, Forcepoint, Huawei and Nuage Networks |
The manufacturing sector faces many networking challenges, including high reliability and uptime requirements, integrations with legacy systems, support for geographically dispersed locations and ensuring strict security is enforced. As network downtime can lead to financial loss, halts in production and disruptions to supply chains, it is essential for manufacturers to find a network solution to prevent potential issues. The best solution for this is Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), which not only addresses these challenges but also optimises network performance within your manufacturing environment.
Netify has compiled a list of the best SD-WAN vendors and managed service providers experienced in the manufacturing sector, including case studies, features and other data points specific to the industry.
Table of Contents
Challenges That The Manufacturing Sector Faces
The manufacturing sector often faces many unique challenges and the impact of these challenges can be a strain on business activity.
Unique Networking Challenges in Manufacturing
Businesses within the manufacturing sector often require their network to meet many demands. These can include high reliability and uptime, integration with traditional networks, systems and equipment, support for diverse and geographically dispersed workforces, as well as integrating security solutions across the entire network to protect against threats from competitors and nation-sate actors, aiming to access proprietary processes or trade secrets.
Impact of Downtime and Connectivity Issues
The impact of network downtime or connectivity issues can be severely damaging to manufacturing businesses. It is estimated that these issues can cause financial losses of up to $50,000 per minute due to production halts, supply chain disruptions and reduced operational efficiency. Interruptions to operations can also affect safety measures, which are required for manufacturers to maintain compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act (HWSA), which mandates uninterrupted safety measures.
How SD-WAN Enhances Factory Automation
SD-WAN platforms offer a reliable, flexible and secure network infrastructure, which in turn provides many benefits over traditional WAN networks. By improving network reliability and performance, manufacturers can synchronise real-time systems to communicate data between sensors and machines. Through this real-time connection, manufacturers can create seamless automated operations, with systems that can rapidly respond to changes in environment.
Through SD-WAN capabilities to support edge computing techniques, manufacturers can leverage localised processing of data, which reduces network traffic load and latency faced by critical traffic. This is important for businesses looking to utilise Internet of Things devices, such as for robotics or machine vision use cases, as these are heavily reliant on real-time connections and small delays can severely impact performance.
Whilst edge computing reduces the volume of traffic on the network, manufacturers may still be concerned about the communication traffic, which is critical to business operations, experiencing degradation. Dynamic and adaptive traffic management has become a necessity to avoid degradation and SD-WAN platforms assists with this through Quality of Service (QoS) policies, which enable prioritisation of automation data and communications between machines and control systems.
To improve automation efficiencies, manufacturers can utilise the monitoring functionality offered by SD-WAN. SD-WAN continues to monitor your network and control factory operations, even when your administrators can’t, using real-time data visibility, telemetry and analysis of network performance. This enables manufacturers to be flexible, reconfiguring the network to support changes in demands, scale production lines and reach peak efficiency without having any major network overhauls.
For manufacturers concerned about the confidentiality and integrity of their production lines and intellectual property, SD-WAN also integrates vast security feature and to reduce the complexity of setting up lots of security appliances, SD-WAN technology provides advanced security features pre-packaged. These can often include features such as Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS). These security features are just some of many that ensure the protection of the network, ensuring that no breach of the system occurs. Other advanced security features include the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for anomaly detection. These indicate potential threats to the network and, by allowing for proactive mitigation, SD-WAN enables administrators to rapidly respond to network threats.
The Best SD-WAN Vendors for Manufacturing
| wdt_ID | wdt_created_by | wdt_created_at | wdt_last_edited_by | wdt_last_edited_at | Vendor | About The Vendor | Why Their Solution Is Designed For Manufacturers | Case Studies | Key Offerings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Fortinet | The most security-focused vendor on the SD-WAN market, Fortinet has been recognised as a leader in the Gartner magic quadrant for its secure SD-WAN offering for the last five consecutive years. Whilst it’s well known that Fortinet can be more difficult | Fortinet’s SD-WAN solution addresses manufacturing needs through: – Integrated security features to protect proprietary and sensitive data and industrial systems, only allowing secure access – Self-healing network capabilities for continuous operational u | An American manufacturer integrated Fortinet SD-WAN in order to achieve Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) and retain large defence contracts. The Fortinet Security Fabric, part of the SD-WAN offering and integrations, provided the manufact | Application-Aware Routing, Unified SASE, Automation, App Path Insights, Identity-Based Firewall |
| 2 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Palo Alto Networks (Prisma) | One of the more advanced and in-depth solutions on this list, Palo Alto Network’s Prisma SD-WAN offers businesses with Artificial Intelligence (AI) integrations and detailed analytics to help manage their network. By utilising AI for automated management, | Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma SD-WAN offers manufacturers with advanced user experience monitoring, simplified operations and native security integrations with ZTNA 2.0. Building on traditional ZTNA methods, Palo Alto Networks solution identifies application | – | Application-Aware Routing, Unified SASE, Strong Cloud Management |
| 3 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Barracuda | Barracuda is known for its heavy integrations with Microsoft Azure cloud services within its SD-WAN solution. With many businesses moving towards a cloud-first strategy, by combining Barracuda CloudGen Firewall and SD-WAN into a single offering within Az | Given the nature of Barracuda SD-WAN, the solution is ideal for manufacturers that utilise Azure services. With support for multi-cloud environments and branch-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud optimisations, Barracuda leverages Microsoft’s Global Network as a | Fibertex, a global textiles producer implemented Barracuda SD-WAN to prevent costly downtime and improve network management. One of the main benefits of the implementation was improved data analytics capabilities that enabled Fibertex to find potential bo | Azure Cloud-Native, Strong Cloud Management, App Path Insights |
| 4 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Versa Networks | Versa Networks is recognised for offering SD-WAN that supports multi-tenancy, which is beneficial for service providers and larger enterprises that manage multiple entities. Whilst Versa Networks’ SD-WAN solution is ideal for lots of small sites with low | One of Versa Network’s stand out features is multi-tenancy, with segmentation across data, control and management planes. This means that Versa can easily support connectivity for complex, globally dispersed manufacturing environments. Further to this, | Sprint, a global manufacturing organisation with over 50 global locations and more than 15,000 employees worldwide implemented Versa SD-WAN. With Versa, they were able to install next-generation firewall and UTM at all sites, utilise bluetooth deployment | Multicloud Support, ZTP, SASE Integration, App Path Insights |
| 5 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Cisco Catalyst | Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is designed to offer enterprise-grade reliability and security, typically for the largest of enterprises, such as businesses with hundreds to thousands of sites. Because of this, Cisco’s Catalyst solution has been recognised as a lea | Designed for enterprises, Cisco SD-WAN is well known in the SD-WAN market for its scalability which is critical for manufacturers operating large, multi-site operations. Cisco report that customers can expect lowered total operating costs of up to 39% an | New Wave Group is a European growth company that produces corporate goods, sports and leisure items and gifts and home furnishings. They needed to rapidly connect new sites across Europe while improving their cloud access and by replacing their outdated M | Application-Aware Routing, Cloud OnRamp, WAN Optimisation, Identity-Based Firewall, Multiregion Fabric for MSPs |
| 6 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Cisco Meraki | An easy-to-use solution has become important for improving accessibility for managing solutions and, for businesses with this as a requirement, Cisco Meraki should be a contender for their shortlist. Cisco Meraki SD-WAN is considered easy-to-use in compar | Cisco Meraki is well know for providing ease of use with their SD-WAN platform, therefore catering to manufacturers without dedicated network administrator teams. Ideal for manufacturers managing multiple production sites, Cisco Meraki offers AutoVPN for | A mid-size manufacturing company, facing frequent system downtimes and productivity losses, integrated Cisco Meraki SD-WAN to streamline its production line operations. Integrating Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, it enabled the manufacturer to connect IoT devices on | ZTP, CCTV Support, Sensor Integration, SASE Integration |
| 7 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | HPE Aruba EdgeConnect | HPE Aruba SD-WAN stands out with its advanced AI-powered capabilities that optimise application performance and reduce operational complexity for medium size businesses (where internal expertise may not already be present). Leveraging Aruba’s unique AIOps | HPE Aruba SD-WAN offers manufacturers with direct Software-as-a-Service optimisations and multi-cloud network support, therefore helping manufacturers move to industry 4.0 and distributed platform processes. HPE Aruba also offers support for IoT and aut | Assessing HPE Aruba within a manufacturing environment, we look to its implementation at a global power solutions manufacturer. By deploying EdgeConnect SD-WAN across all physical locations and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), the manufactur | Dynamic Path Selection, Unified SASE, WAN Optimisation, Cloud Vendor Integration, Enhanced Monitoring |
| 8 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | VMware VeloCloud | Businesses are now seeing an increased demand for flexible deployment options across different cloud environments and one vendor that has been able to deliver this functionality particularly well is VMware, with VMware SD-WAN known for its flexibility and | The VMware SD-WAN solution provides manufacturers with sub-second failover capabilities, which can be invaluable to manufacturers that utilise highly-precise production line processes. One of the main selling points of Velocloud is this high reliability | Redmond, a leading sea salt brand in the United States, were expanding and had an increased need to operate voice and multiple virtual desktops at once. They chose the VMware SD-WAN solution as their SD-WAN solution to replace ageing branch infrastructure | App Path Insights, Global PoP Network, Multicloud Support, Application Control |
| 9 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Aryaka | Aryaka is well known for their global connectivity which spans 40 worldwide Points of Presence (PoPs) together with the integration of SD-WAN and SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) network security for a combined managed service offering. | Whilst Aryaka’s particularly good for manufacturers operating within the China region, they do also offer low-latency global connectivity through their backbone. With multi-segment optimisation via independent proxies for first-mile, middle-mile, and last | A medium-sized industrial manufacturing company deployed Aryaka’s SD-WAN solution and experienced improved application performance, which resulted in greater manufacturing productivity. The SD-WAN solution also reduced total cost of ownership (TCO), provi | Unified SASE, WAN Edge Infrastructure Optimisation, Multicloud Support, Simple Management, Global PoP Network |
| 10 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Cato Networks | The first SASE platform, Cato Networks is recognised for its global network of Points of Presence (PoPs) and the convergence of its SD-WAN solution with SASE security. A managed service, Cato Networks SD-WAN is often well-liked due to its dashboard being | Another vendor that offers a worldwide network of Points of Presence, Cato Networks improves operations for manufacturers by offering their backbone for better performance. With an all-in-one platform for security (SASE) as well as network connectivity (S | Alewijnse, a manufacturer with locations across the Netherlands and Romania, faced similar challenges with their old MPLS network. The costs, complexity, and slow deployment times were a hindrance to business activity and by migrating to SD-WAN, it enable | Global PoP Network, Unified SASE, ZTP, Templated Configuration |
| 11 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Juniper Networks | Juniper Networks is renowned for Artificial Intelligence-driven networking solutions that cater to businesses of all sizes. Through AI and IoT integrations, Juniper’s expertise lies in automation and security capabilities for networks. | Manufacturers looking to harness AI-driven automation for network processes should look no further than Juniper Networks. The Marvis Virtual Network Assistant utilises natural language processing assist and automate troubleshooting of network issues and o | – | WAN Edge Infrastructure Optimisation, Multicloud Support, Simple Management, AI |
| 12 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Citrix | Citrix SD-WAN is an enterprise-grade solution for businesses looking to optimise and improve their branch office, home workers and remote user connectivity. The Citrix product offers a suite of solutions across three distinct tiers that are designed to su | Citrix’s SD-WAN solution supports manufacturers that utilise edge computing architectures, which can be essential for time-sensitive manufacturing and production line processes. Citrix offers detection and classification of over 4,500 SaaS, cloud and vir | Metrie, North America’s largest supplier of solid wood and composite moulding, implemented Citrix SD-WAN across their manufacturing facilities, achieving: – 57% reduction in branch office latency – 93% reduction in packet loss – 21% reduction in jitter – | WAN Edge Infrastructure Optimisation, Multicloud Support, Simple Management, Edge Computing Support |
| 13 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Cradlepoint | Cradlepoint’s solution is best designed for edge-to-cloud connectivity that utilises 5G and LTE. Their solutions are particularly suited for manufacturing operations that utilise mobile workforces and require rapid deployment in remote locations. | For manufacturers operating in more remote locations, Cradlepoint’s SD-WAN solution should be a contender. Through their focus on connectivity via 5G and LTE, Cradlepoint offers a niche solution that can integrate multiple cellular carriers, crucial for c | – | 5G and LTE Connectivity, Wireless Edge Solutions, Cloud Management, Failover Support, IoT Integration |
| 14 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Peplink | Provides industrial-grade hardware and fail-safe connectivity to maintain operations in extreme manufacturing environments, ensuring network stability and uptime. | Pelink offer an SD-WAN solution specifically designed for industrial and manufacturing environments. Peplink focuses on reliability and simplified deployment, with rugged hardware suited for harsh and industrial-grade environments that are common in manu | A manufacturer wanting to integrate IoT, utilised Peplink’s SD-WAN solution helped address these issues by providing a reliable, high-speed network capable of managing the data traffic from numerous IoT devices. This implementation not only improved the e | WAN Edge Infrastructure Optimisation, Multicloud Support, Simple Management, IoT support, Industry 4.0 support |
| 15 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Forcepoint | Forcepoint are focused on cybersecurity and data protection, therefore their SD-WAN solution is designed to protect data across distributed networks and cloud platforms. | Forcepoint specialises in data protection, therefore a contender for manufacturers that face strict data regulations, requirements to protect intellectual property and/or proprietary designs. | An Italian appliance manufacturer that had 33 branches leveraged Forcepoint to reduce their reliance on expensive MPLS connections. Through traffic steering an Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities, the manufacturer was able to replace the MPLS connection | Integrated Cybersecurity, Advanced Data Loss Prevention, Cloud Security Gateway, Identity-Based Firewall, Unified Threat Protection |
| 16 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Huawei | Huawei is a global leader in networking and IoT solutions. Their SD-WAN solution is designed to support scalability and industrial use cases of IoT. Huawei SD-WAN assists with integration of connected devices across manufacturing facilities. | Huawei’s SD-WAN offering is ideal for manufacturers that operate over multiple sites, with Huawei supporting distributed branch connectivity. Further to this, they offer support for industrial IoT and AI-driven traffic optimisations in order to ensure tha | Sinopec Jiangsu, a major oil and gas company, successfully implemented Huawei’s SD-WAN solution across over 2,700 sites, including gas stations and oil depots. This enabled Sinopec Jiangsu to integrate 5G as backup links to interconnect smart gas station | IoT Integration, AI-Powered Automation, Edge Computing Support, Cloud Interconnectivity, High Availability Solutions |
| 17 | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | hyelland | 22/01/2025 09:35 AM | Nuage Networks | Nuage Networks are a division of Nokia. With a focus on automated integration of multi-cloud environments, Nuage Networks’ SD-WAN solution is ideal for manufacturers that need the ability to quickly onboard new cloud platforms. | Nuage Networks’ SD-WAN solution offers manufacturers with support for direct Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) optimisations for applications, such as Office365 and Salesforce. Nuage excels in flexible and automated multi-cloud integration, making it ideal fo | Ixom partnered with BT to implement Agile Connect, BT’s SD-WAN solution powered by Nuage Networks, across their global manufacturing operations. Ixom required improved visibility across global sites and needed better network security and monitoring capab | Multi-Cloud Automation, IoT Device Compatibility, Zero-Touch Provisioning, Application-Aware Routing, Analytics |
| Vendor | About The Vendor | Why Their Solution Is Designed For Manufacturers | Case Studies | Key Offerings |
Important Features To Consider For Manufacturing Networks
When choosing an SD-WAN solution for manufacturing, it’s important to consider the most important facets of the network, such as requirements for uptime, security, connectivity between a range of locations or tech integrations in production lines.
Some of the more manufacturing-focused requirements include:
Support for Industry 4.0, cloud and IoT integrations – Manufacturers are increasingly ditching their traditional systems for newer, more efficient processes. Industry 4.0 is the integration of digital technologies into manufacturing and industrial processes, such as IoT, AI, robotics and big data analytics. To support these technologies for manufacturers, a chosen SD-WAN solution must facilitate edge computing to process data closer to production sites, ensure compatibility with multi-cloud environments, enabling the integration of important cloud-based applications and platforms, as well as supporting low-latency IoT communications for real-time monitoring and control of manufacturing systems.
Addressing challenges of legacy system compatibility – we’re still seeing that many manufacturers are actually still heavily reliant on legacy equipment and systems that they’ve been using for long periods of time. These systems are vital to ongoing production and thus, taking them offline has been out of the question. Given this, for manufacturers that do utilise legacy systems, these systems may not easily integrate with some SD-WAN solutions and therefore manufacturers need to consider which solutions offer this capabilities. Compatibility can come in the form of Protocol support, which is essential for older systems to ensure easy integration without significant downtime.
Security and data protection – Many manufacturers will be concerned about data security, with proprietary systems and intellectual properties on the network, it’s essential that these are safeguarded from malicious activities by some form of security services. One way that SD-WAN handles this is through end-to-end encryption which protects sensitive production data, with granular access controls and segmentation backing this up to split up different parts of the network, preventing lateral movement between each section. Further to this, SD-WAN solutions often offer built-in security services, such as threat detection and response, to not only identify but also mitigate risks in real time, preventing data losses and assisting in recovery processes.
Scalability and support for geographically dispersed operations – Manufacturing enterprises often span multiple locations, from factories to warehouses and distribution centres. To accommodate this distributed nature, SD-WAN solutions must provide secure remote working environment capabilities, as well as centralised management for operations across sites, with bandwidth optimisations that offer consistent performance across all facilities, regardless of geographic location.
SASE and SSE for Manufacturing
However, for manufacturers that require more in-depth security solutions, SD-WAN vendors may not offer the full solution – therefore businesses should look towards Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Secure Service Edge (SSE) solutions to improve the security services available across all fronts.
Manufacturers are increasingly using the cloud for its scalability, enabling Software-as-a-Service applications such as CAD to be cloud-delivered. Unfortunately, this alone is not truly scalable, as traditional WAN networks require additional security to be added to enable such activity. Security Service Edge, on the other hand, comprises of many security features that would enable manufacturers to utilise cloud applications. These features ensure the protection of the network through consistent policies across users and devices regardless of location. Features such as Secure Web Gateways (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Zero-Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS) enable Zero Trust policies to be implemented and reduce the need for additional security appliances to be integrated into the network, securing the manufacturer’s intellectual property from breaches.
SASE then integrates SSE as part of its solution with SD-WAN, providing users with a holistic network management tool, leveraging a combination of security and network performance benefits. This can be helpful for manufacturers looking to attain ISO/IEC 27001, as the ability to rapidly manage the entire network security demonstrates commitment to information security, a key aspect of the regulation.
Benefits of SASE/SSE for Manufacturing
For manufacturers, there is an increasing threat from competitors and nation-state actors attempting to gain access to proprietary manufacturing processes, designs and trade secrets. These actors often use espionage tactics to infiltrate networks in order to steal intellectual property and valuable manufacturing data. Manufacturers therefore want to protect against cyber threats targeting their systems, such as industrial control systems (ICS). SD-WAN handles this through the enhanced security posture provided by the integration of ZTNA, SWG, CASB and FWaaS, which means that the network exposes less attack surface to potential threats.
