The market saw a strong rebound, particularly in the SD-WAN sector, as businesses worked through the excess inventory they had stockpiled during the pandemic.
A major boost came from Cisco’s impressive sales performance, which not only helped drive this recovery but also sparked renewed confidence as the industry moves toward 2025.
“The SASE market is recalibrating after years of explosive growth, but the fundamental demand for integrated, scalable security and networking solutions remains strong,” said Dell’Oro Group’s Mauricio Sanchez.
The networking and security market saw significant shifts in 2024, with single-vendor SASE solutions taking center stage. These solutions surged by 77% year-over-year, while multi-vendor approaches struggled, experiencing a sharp 56% decline.
Among the top ten revenue leaders, only four companies—Broadcom, Cato Networks, Cisco, and Palo Alto Networks—managed to maintain a well-balanced revenue mix between SD-WAN and security service edge (SSE), with at least a 70/30 split.
This highlights the challenge of gaining a strong foothold in both networking and security, as most vendors tend to dominate in one area more than the other.
SD-WAN revenue saw a notable turnaround in Q4 2024, rebounding to 17% growth after several quarters of slower performance. This signals a renewed investment in branch networking, with enterprises prioritizing agility and security in their infrastructure.
Meanwhile, SSE revenue climbed 16% for the year, demonstrating that businesses remain committed to cloud security even in the face of broader economic challenges.
Companies are clearly doubling down on protecting remote and hybrid work environments, ensuring their security strategies evolve alongside their network needs.
Total branch networking spending, including SD-WAN and access routers, also saw a 9% increase in Q4 2024. This reversed recent quarterly declines and pointed to growing enterprise confidence as organizations geared up for 2025 with fresh investments in their network architecture.
“Enterprises are shifting their strategies from rapid expansion to optimisation, consolidating investments around strategic vendors, and signalling a pivot toward long-term, stable market expansion.” said Sanchez
Vendor consolidation remained a dominant theme, with the top six vendors—Zscaler, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Broadcom, Fortinet, and Netskope—controlling 71% of the market in 2024, up from 64% the previous year.
