• Vodacom Business Africa’s SD-WAN offering is now available in all African markets in which it operates.
• Data from BMIT highlights that 37 percent of all South African VPN-enabled businesses will make use of SD-WAN solutions by 2026.
• The service can be fully deployed and managed by Vodacom Business Africa.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and as we look back on the pandemic, it really should be something that is top of mind, especially in a business sense.

As teams split to work from home during the pandemic, and on a more permanent basis post-pandemic, connectivity was a major concern. For many businesses, the software defined-wide area network (SD-WAN) was an invaluable tool not only for connectivity but security as well.

An SD-WAN helps protect traffic by tunneling it between locations and now Vodacom Business Africa has announced that its SD-WAN product is available in all 47 African markets it operates within.

“By launching this offering into Africa, we’re eliminating connectivity barriers that growing businesses are contending with. These include increasing cybersecurity threats, escalating data demands and costs, as well as slow or unresponsive digital applications that stall productivity,” explains Wale Odeyemi, executive head of Strategic Marketing for Vodacom Business Africa.

Vodacom Business Africa’s product can be fully managed across multiple locations both nationally and internationally. The solution can also be merged with your existing network.

Should you be starting fresh, Vodacom Business Africa provides both the physical network underlay as well as the digital overlay.

“This central management is another major drawcard, as it enables the deployment of new branches or data-centre provisions without the costly expert labour traditionally involved with network upgrades,” adds Odeyemi.

The SD-WAN market has been growing at a steady pace. ICT analyst firm BMIT reports that by 2026, 37 percent of all South African VPN-enabled businesses will make use of SD-WAN solutions.

Among the drivers of this growth is an uptick in the number of SD-WAN providers. Many of these providers are existing service providers such as Vodacom Business Africa. By expanding its footprint to offer this solution in more regions it operates, Vodacom Business Africa can leverage those existing relationships and offer new products.

“South African-based managed services players are deploying SD-WAN solutions in customer sites both in the country and in other African countries in which they operate, in a ‘follow the customer’ approach. Due to the weighting of multi-site companies, notably with retailers in the VPN market overall, sites outside of SA’s borders makeup as many as 40% of all sites deployed by some leading South African managed service providers,” writes BMIT.

For more information about Vodacom Business Africa’s SD-WAN solution email VBIsales[at]vodacom[dot]co[dot]za.