4. Service Providers Will Dig Deeper Into SD-WAN

The SD-WAN space historically has been led by networking vendors that specialized in hardware-based solutions, but carriers entered the market in droves last year with the goal of adding more value to their basic connectivity offerings, and that trend will continue in 2017.

Tier-1 service providers such as AT&T, Sprint, Vonage and Verizon all formed strategic technology partnerships with SD-WAN startups like Viptela, Velocloud and Versa Networks.

"I haven't seen this level of excitement in the WAN services space since MPLS came out 15 or 20 years ago," said Kelly Ajuha, CEO of Versa Networks, in an interview with CRN. "There's just a compelling value proposition that exists in the enterprise and service provider to be able to go do SD-WAN."