Long before SD-WAN came into the market, replacing MPLS access circuits with locally-procured Internet access circuits has been a method used to reduce costs for international WAN networks (see White Paper: Is MPLS dying?). As we discussed in our last white paper, A buyer’s guide to SD-WAN, there has been much hype around SD-WAN cost benefits and our paper analysed the reality of this as well as setting out other expectations. Since publication we have spoken to a number of organisations keen to understand whether these potential costs savings (as well as the benefits of SD-WAN) apply to the UK domestic market in the same way as they do for global WANs.
TNC has the benefit of reviewing thousands of price points every month across a wide spectrum of organisations and vendors whether through procurement activities, benchmarking, reviews of existing pricing or vendor offers. It is through this insight that TNC can see that, today, there is little or no difference between domestic WAN access pricing, whether it be MPLS or internet, on a like for like basis.
This fact often comes as a surprise to organisations that have been exposed to relentless SD-WAN marketing over the last few years purporting that internet access is cheaper than MPLS access. So, the question we will now examine is why is this the case?