The worldwide Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) market posted 10% year-over-year (Y/Y) revenue growth in 2Q 2024, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group.

This is the lowest growth rate since Dell’Oro Group started tracking SASE in 1Q 2019. Economic pressures, including inflation and tighter corporate budgets, have temporarily slowed market expansion, leading enterprises to focus on optimising existing investments rather than concentrating on new deployments.

Despite this slowdown, the report forecasts a rebound over the next four quarters, with market growth expected to begin recovering in the forthcoming quarters.

“While the SASE market has felt the effects of economic uncertainty, the fundamentals remain strong,” says Mauricio Sanchez, senior director: enterprise security and networking at Dell’Oro Group. “We anticipate a rebound in the coming year as enterprises shift from short-term caution to longer-term investment in cloud-based security and networking solutions.

“The demand for integrated and scalable SASE platforms will grow as digital-first strategies become non-negotiable.

“As enterprises focus on operational efficiency and streamlined IT management, single-vendor SASE solutions have emerged as a clear winner,” Sanchez adds. “We expect this trend to gain momentum, particularly as companies look to simplify deployments and achieve faster time-to-value.”

Additional highlights from the 2Q 2024 SASE and SD-WAN Quarterly Report include:

  • The global SASE market, combining SD-WAN and Security Service Edge (SSE) technologies, again topped $2-billion for the fifth consecutive quarter, but the 10 percent Y/Y growth was the slowest rate since tracking commenced in 1Q 2019.
  • The top SASE vendors with a revenue share greater than 5% were Zscaler, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Broadcom, Fortinet, and Netskope.
  • SD-WAN growth slowed to 1% Y/Y as enterprises focused on optimizing existing deployments, but recovery is anticipated as branch transformation projects are expected to restart.
  • The SSE market saw solid growth of 17% Y/Y, although this is the first time growth has dipped below 20% since tracking started in 1Q 2019.
  • Single-vendor SASE solutions grew nearly twice as fast as multi-vendor solutions, with sequential growth of 5% compared to 3% for multi-vendor approaches.
  • Access Router market revenue dropped 28% Y/Y due to economic pressures and the enterprise shift to SD-WAN.