Technologies don’t always evolve on their own. Often, customer preferences and the introduction of other innovations help spur the original technology forward, sparking new trends. Software-defined WAN is one example. For instance, the early adopters of SD-WAN, beset by hard-to-solve WAN problems, deployed DIY SD-WAN. However, that approach became less popular as enterprises now prefer managed SD-WAN deployments. Advancements in AI, cloud, remote work, 5G and wireless technologies have also helped propel SD-WAN adoption.