The Wide Area Network (WAN) market remains hyper-competitive in the UK, alongside an increased demand for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) according to research and analysis company GlobalData.
Robert Pritchard, principal analyst for enterprise technology and services at GlobalData, said: “Data WANs are what power the UK’s enterprises and public sector organisations, they are the lifeblood of the economy and the backbone of business and society.
“Intense competition in the market comes from challengers offering lower prices and closer customer engagement.”
GlobalData analysis of the WAN market finds that service providers focus on providing enterprise customers with greater control and automation including routing, new orders, and ongoing management to match the agility required to support their own commercial goals.
These features are enabled by application programming interfaces (APIs) and customer portals for self-service, which also saves service providers time and money through digital automation.
Pritchard continues: “Enterprises enjoy a wide choice of data WAN services which meet their particular needs, from ‘fat pipes’ between sites or into cloud service providers, to reliable connectivity to branch sites, home offices, or nomadic workers.
“This constant connectivity means that work activities can be optimised and efficient. It also caters to the growing flexibility of work as an activity rather than a location.”
GlobalData analysis also finds that security and reliability and back-up solutions play a key part across all types of data network connectivity, backed of course, by service level guarantees with stringent targets.
The sudden explosion of GenAI late last year has added a largely unexpected demand increase on wide area data networks and not just into hyperscaler data centres. According to GlobalData, GenAI impacts networks wherever data analysis takes place and that can equally well be at a campus, at headquarters, at a manufacturing site, and even on the road.
