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Netify SD-WAN Buyer Question Bank (2026.1)

Structured questions buyers can use during RFI or shortlist conversations with SD-WAN vendors and managed service providers. Questions are grouped by category, mapped to the capability taxonomy and tagged with the evidence the buyer should ask for.

Suggested citation

Netify SD-WAN Buyer Question Bank 2026.1, Netify, available at https://www.netify.co.uk/sd-wan/question-bank/

FieldValue
Methodology versionsdwan-vendor-filter-2026.1
Scoring model versionsdwan-scoring-model-2026.1
Capability taxonomy versionsdwan-capability-taxonomy-2026.1
Filter schema versionsdwan-vendor-filter-schema-2026.1
Last reviewed2026-05-20
Canonical URL/sd-wan/question-bank/
Machine-readable JSONhttps://www.netify.co.uk/wp-json/netify/v1/sd-wan/question-bank
PublisherNetify, https://www.netify.co.uk/
LicencePublic methodology. Reuse permitted with attribution to Netify and the canonical URL.

Use the question bank as the starting structure for a vendor RFI. Pair it with the Sample RFP outline and the Scoring Model to keep scoring consistent across responses.

Buyer profile and design

  1. Qbp_01. How many sites and remote users will the design cover at year one and year three? Evidence to ask for: Architecture diagram, ramp plan.
  2. Qbp_02. Which underlay options are in scope per region? Evidence to ask for: Underlay matrix per country.
  3. Qbp_03. Which cloud platforms are critical and what is the on-ramp model for each? Evidence to ask for: Cloud on-ramp diagram and PoP list.
  4. Qbp_04. What is the operating model: fully managed, co-managed or self-managed? Evidence to ask for: RACI matrix and runbook samples.

Technology and security

  1. Qts_01. Which SASE components are native to the platform versus partner-delivered? Evidence to ask for: Architecture document, single-pass description.
  2. Qts_02. How is policy authored once and applied to branch, remote user and cloud workloads? Evidence to ask for: Policy console walkthrough.
  3. Qts_03. Which application-aware routing decisions are taken in the data plane versus the cloud? Evidence to ask for: Path-selection logic document.
  4. Qts_04. What telemetry is exposed via API and at what cadence? Evidence to ask for: API spec and sample payloads.

Service delivery and operations

  1. Qsd_01. Where is the 24x7 service desk located and who answers UK office-hours tickets? Evidence to ask for: Support model document and rota.
  2. Qsd_02. What is the standard escalation path and time to engineering? Evidence to ask for: Escalation runbook.
  3. Qsd_03. What service credits apply if SLAs are missed and how are they calculated? Evidence to ask for: SLA schedule extract.
  4. Qsd_04. How are changes risk-assessed, approved and rolled back? Evidence to ask for: Change management policy.

Commercial

  1. Qco_01. What is the licensing model and are there volume bands? Evidence to ask for: Rate card.
  2. Qco_02. What term lengths are available and are mid-term scope changes priced? Evidence to ask for: Standard contract language.
  3. Qco_03. What are the price uplift conditions year over year? Evidence to ask for: Uplift clause.
  4. Qco_04. What lifecycle and refresh path applies to edge hardware or virtual edges? Evidence to ask for: Lifecycle policy.

Evidence and assurance

  1. Qev_01. Can you provide two named UK references at our deployment size? Evidence to ask for: Customer contacts.
  2. Qev_02. Can you cite a sector reference matching ours with measurable outcomes? Evidence to ask for: Case study with metrics.
  3. Qev_03. Which independent tests or attestations apply to the proposed stack? Evidence to ask for: SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS report extracts.
  4. Qev_04. What is the largest single-customer deployment in production today? Evidence to ask for: Deployment scale statement.

Related Netify SD-WAN methodology artefacts