A recently published report from the Dell’Oro Group reveals that the global secure access service edge (SASE) market reached USD2.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024, achieving a 14% year-over-year revenue growth.
The market showed notable improvement, especially within the SD-WAN segment, driven by a recovery from earlier inventory corrections caused by pandemic-induced overbuying. Robust Cisco sales also played a key role in this rebound, signalling a shift toward recovery and increased optimism heading into 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. “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.”
Additional highlights from the 4Q 2024 SASE and SD-WAN Quarterly Report include:
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Single-vendor SASE solutions grew 77% year-over-year, significantly outperforming multi-vendor solutions, which experienced a sharp decline of 56%. Among the top ten vendors by revenue, only four – Broadcom, Cato Networks, Cisco, and Palo Alto Networks, maintained a relatively balanced revenue distribution between SD-WAN and SSE (at least a 70/30 split), highlighting the complexity of penetrating both the networking and security shares of customer wallet;
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SD-WAN revenue rebounded to 17% growth in 4Q 2024, marking a pivot after several quarters of slower growth;
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Security service edge (SSE) revenue increased 16% in 2024, reflecting continued enterprise investment in cloud security despite broader macroeconomic headwinds;
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Total branch networking spending (SD-WAN and access routers) increased 9% in the fourth quarter of 2024, reversing recent quarterly declines and indicating improved enterprise confidence heading into 2025; and
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Vendor consolidation continued, as the top six vendors (Zscaler, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Broadcom, Fortinet, Netskope) represented 71% of the market in 2024, up from 64% in 2023, reflecting enterprises’ growing preference for offerings from fewer, trusted vendors.
