Best SD-WAN and SASE providers for healthcare (2026)

1. No. 1 · Score 95.8

   Cato Networks

   Cloud-native SASE / SD-WAN provider · Typical deployment: hours

   Cato's converged architecture runs SD-WAN policy and security policy through the same engine, which has a direct consequence for IoMT segmentation. A new infusion pump, imaging modality or nurse call device gets the same micro-segmentation policy applied at every site, because there's only one policy to apply - not a network team's configuration and a separate security team's configuration that need to be kept aligned. In estates where medical devices are onboarded continuously and not always by the same team, that consistency is the main argument for Cato in a healthcare context.

   Application-aware routing for Epic or Cerner traffic sits in the same policy layer, so prioritisation rules for clinical systems don't need separate reconciliation against SD-WAN QoS settings.

   Evidence caveats: Healthcare: Partial

   Watch out: Trusts already committed to Zscaler or Netskope as their SSE layer - whether through an existing enterprise agreement or a compliance sign-off already completed - will find Cato's architecture doesn't accommodate that alongside it. For a trust mid-way through a separate SSE procurement, that's a more significant decision than the deployment-in-hours headline implies, and worth raising before evaluation goes much further.

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2. No. 2 · Score 94.6

   AT&T Business

   Global carrier managed SD-WAN / SASE provider · Typical deployment: months

   AT&T's multi-vendor platform options, including Fortinet for AT&T SASE, mean a hospital network running different EHR systems or different generations of imaging equipment across its sites isn't forced onto a single architecture. For 24/7 care resilience, that flexibility is useful in practice - a flagship site with a 24-hour emergency department and a smaller outpatient clinic have different failover requirements, and AT&T's portfolio can be matched accordingly rather than applying one standard everywhere.

   On data sovereignty, AT&T's HIPAA credentials are well-established, though for trusts with DSPT obligations or any cross-border processing, the specific platform proposed will determine where that data is actually handled.

   Watch out: Because the underlying platform varies by service tier, the compliance picture isn't fixed at the outset - it depends on which platform AT&T proposes for the scope in question. A trust that signs off on AT&T's general HIPAA posture, then finds during implementation that the specific platform variant handles data-in-transit encryption differently to what was assumed, is left reworking a compliance position that should have been confirmed earlier. Get the platform specification in writing before sign-off.

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3. No. 3 · Score 94.6

   BT Business / BT Global

   Global/UK managed SD-WAN / SASE provider · Typical deployment: weeks

   BT's access circuit ownership means that when a connection into a community hospital or GP surgery starts to degrade, BT's own field engineers are working on BT's own infrastructure, rather than the managed service provider waiting on a separate access provider to investigate. In a 24/7 care setting, the time between raising a fault and an engineer actively diagnosing it is what determines whether a degrading circuit is a brief blip or a clinical system going down mid-shift.

   That same underlay ownership simplifies the data sovereignty position for UK trusts. A single UK-based provider managing both connectivity and overlay removes a layer of third-party risk assessment that multi-vendor arrangements typically require for DSPT compliance.

   Watch out: BT's SD-WAN portfolio isn't built on one platform, and for healthcare specifically that has a bearing on application-aware routing - the prioritisation behaviour for Epic, Cerner or PACS/DICOM traffic differs between the platforms BT can deploy. A trust that evaluates BT against one platform's clinical traffic handling, then finds a different platform proposed at contract stage, may find the imaging prioritisation it assessed isn't present in the same form. Confirm the specific platform early and test application-aware routing against your actual traffic profile before signing.

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4. No. 4 · Score 92.3

   Comcast Business / Masergy

   Managed SD-WAN / SASE provider · Typical deployment: weeks

   The Masergy AIOps heritage gives Comcast Business a monitoring layer built to identify degradation - rising latency, increasing packet loss - before a connection fails outright, rather than after. For a hospital where that connection is carrying PACS imaging to a radiologist or supporting a telehealth consultation, the advance warning is the practical value: rerouting or intervention can happen before the clinical impact occurs, not in response to it.

   Combined with fully managed or co-managed delivery, this gives smaller trusts without a large network operations function access to a level of proactive monitoring that larger health systems would otherwise need to build in-house.

   Evidence caveats: Healthcare: Partial

   Watch out: The AIOps capability is grounded in North American operational experience. International delivery outside North America runs through partnerships rather than Comcast's own infrastructure, so the monitoring depth evaluated against a North American reference site may not extend in the same form to partner-delivered regions. For any healthcare network with European or wider international sites, it's worth asking specifically how AIOps monitoring is delivered at those locations rather than confirming only that it's available.

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5. No. 5 · Score 92.3

   NTT DATA / NTT Ltd.

   Global managed network provider · Typical deployment: months

   NTT's global operations centres run 24x7, which aligns closely with how care settings operate - the follow-the-sun handover between centres means there's an active team monitoring at all times, rather than an on-call response after an issue is reported.

   The portal visibility NTT provide is also relevant to compliance teams specifically. Trusts needing to demonstrate to auditors how patient data flows are monitored, and where clinical traffic is routed, have that information readily accessible rather than needing to request it on a case-by-case basis - which reduces friction in DSPT evidence-gathering.

   Evidence caveats: Healthcare: Partial

   Watch out: NTT's managed service wraps around platforms from the likes of Palo Alto and Zscaler rather than a single NTT-built stack, so the IoMT segmentation and clinical application prioritisation capability available depends on which platform is proposed for the estate. The 24x7 operations model is consistent regardless of platform, but medical device micro-segmentation needs assessing against the specific underlying technology rather than assumed from NTT's overall score.

   Contact NTT DATA / NTT Ltd. via Netify ↗

6. No. 6 · Score 92.3

   Orange Business

   Global managed SD-WAN / SASE provider · Typical deployment: months

   For healthcare networks spanning multiple countries - through research partnerships, shared diagnostic services or cross-border referral pathways - Orange's NOC depth and field operations across European and African markets address a practical issue: data protection and clinical data handling rules vary by country, and Orange's regional presence means there's local operational expertise familiar with those variations, rather than a single global team applying one approach everywhere.

   That regional footprint also supports data sovereignty directly. Localised processing within specific jurisdictions is more credible where the provider already operates there, rather than being a commitment to build capability for the contract.

   Evidence caveats: Healthcare: Partial

   Watch out: As with other large carriers, Orange's underlying SD-WAN platform depends on which Orange-supported vendor is selected - and for clinical workloads, that choice affects how application-aware routing for EHR and imaging traffic behaves in practice. A platform that scores well generally for application prioritisation doesn't guarantee Orange's specific implementation, in a given region, with a given traffic profile, performs the same way. A reference site with a comparable clinical traffic mix is worth requesting.

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7. No. 7 · Score 92.3

   Telefónica Tech

   Global managed SD-WAN / SASE provider · Typical deployment: months

   Telefónica's flexWAN programme and Cisco-based converged service is relevant for trusts with a footprint in Spain, Latin America or wider Europe, in part because Cisco's application-aware routing has long-established support for traffic profiles found in EHR and imaging environments - DICOM has been a known quantity in Cisco's QoS frameworks for some time, which isn't true of every platform in this comparison.

   On data sovereignty, Telefónica's regional presence in those markets means in-country processing options are more readily available than for providers without an established local footprint - relevant for trusts managing patient data across jurisdictions with different residency requirements.

   Evidence caveats: Healthcare: Partial

   Watch out: A largely Cisco-led platform is a genuine advantage where imaging and EHR integration teams already work with Cisco's QoS and segmentation model - but where a trust is standardising on a different vendor for IoMT micro-segmentation elsewhere in the estate, running a Cisco-based WAN alongside a non-Cisco segmentation layer for medical devices can produce the kind of policy fragmentation that undermines consistent device isolation. This is worth mapping against existing IoMT security architecture before assuming compatibility.

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8. No. 8 · Score 92.3

   Verizon Business

   Global carrier managed SD-WAN / SASE provider · Typical deployment: months

   Verizon's North American network has been built up over years of supporting emergency services and first responder communications, and the resilience engineering from that work extends into the managed SD-WAN service - relevant for health systems where network downtime carries a direct patient safety dimension rather than being purely an operational inconvenience.

   International delivery extends well beyond the US, which is useful for health systems with research, supply chain or partner connections overseas, though the platform underpinning that delivery has implications for clinical traffic handling, covered below.

   Evidence caveats: Healthcare: Partial

   Watch out: A largely Versa-based platform has a direct bearing on application-aware routing. Versa's approach to traffic classification is mature, but where a trust's other sites - or a wider integrated care system - run on a different SD-WAN technology, the result is two different application-aware routing logics applied to the same categories of clinical traffic. For a single hospital this is unlikely to matter; for an integrated care system standardising policy across multiple providers, it's a genuine consideration.

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9. No. 9 · Score 91.1

   Colt Technology Services

   Enterprise managed SD-WAN / connectivity provider · Typical deployment: months

   Colt's European data sovereignty positioning is the most direct match to the compliance pillar of any provider in this comparison. Owning the fibre network across European business districts means data-in-transit encryption and localised processing don't depend on a third-party network operator - Colt controls the path the data takes, which makes a DSPT or GDPR data flow mapping exercise more straightforward than where multiple parties are involved.

   For trusts where "where does our patient data physically travel" needs a confident, auditable answer, Colt's network ownership model provides that more directly than most managed providers.

   Evidence caveats: Healthcare: Partial

   Watch out: That strength is geographically bound. Global delivery depth outside Europe is less developed than the likes of AT&T, Verizon or NTT, so a healthcare network that's primarily European but includes, for instance, a research collaboration site in North America or Asia has that site sitting outside Colt's core strength. The 24/7 resilience and AIOps capability that makes Colt compelling for European sites may not extend with the same maturity to that location, and would need assessing separately.

   Contact Colt Technology Services via Netify ↗

10. No. 10 · Score 90

    Palo Alto Networks

    SD-WAN / SASE technology vendor · Typical deployment: weeks

    Prisma SASE's security depth is the main reason this sits in the top 10 despite a lower overall score than the managed providers above it, and for healthcare that depth translates fairly directly into IoMT segmentation capability. ZTNA and micro-segmentation are core to how Prisma is architected rather than added on, which means isolating a vulnerable infusion pump or an unpatched legacy imaging workstation from the rest of the network is a native capability.

    ADEM - digital experience management - is also relevant to clinical application prioritisation. It doesn't only route Epic or PACS traffic with priority; it provides visibility into whether that prioritisation translates into acceptable performance at the point of use, which is the difference between confirming QoS is configured and confirming a radiologist's PACS viewer actually performs.

    Watch out: That capability comes at a price point noticeably higher than firewall-led SD-WAN vendors, and the commercial model needs careful scoping across users, bandwidth, locations and term. For a healthcare network with a large number of smaller sites - community clinics, GP practices, diagnostic centres - the per-site economics of Prisma's security depth may not stack up the same way as for a smaller number of large acute hospitals where security requirements are highest. This is worth modelling against the actual site mix rather than an estate-wide average.

    Contact Palo Alto Networks via Netify ↗

Scores are weighted across 40 capabilities with points accrued based on: yes 1.0, via partner 0.75, via managed service 0.65, partial 0.5, not confirmed 0.15, not primary 0. Extended dimensions are indicative desk research; confirm via RFP.