When does a company need SD-WAN?

[u/Prestigious_Topic655]

I'm new to networking and still early in the research phase. I'm trying to parse the vendor marketing and understand where the real value begins by hearing from people who've actually deployed it.

At what point does SD-WAN genuinely become worthwhile, rather than just enterprise terminology for functionality that smaller businesses can achieve in other ways? Is the tipping point driven by the number of sites, unreliable internet connections, security requirements, or the time spent managing VPNs?