News
Analyst firm predicts 98% growth in market for SDN hardware, software and services over five years.
The global market for carrier software-defined networking (SDN) will record strong growth in the coming years, reaching US$8.7 billion in 2020, according to new analyst research.
The market – including hardware, software and services –was worth $289 million (€255 million) and will record a compound annual growth rate of 98% over the 2015-2020 period, IHS Technology predicted earlier this week.
Software and outsourced services will account for 46% of SDN revenue by the end of the forecast period, according to Michael Howard, senior research director and advisor, carrier networks, at IHS Technology.
SDN orchestration and controller software revenue will grow to over $1.8 billion by the same date, the analyst said. "But by 2020, there will be more value in SDN apps than in orchestration and control, which will be priced reasonably due to competitive pressure," Howard said.
Operators are still in the early stages of network transformation. As it stands, carriers have defined their visions and architectures for SDN and are working through use cases, proofs of concept, and field trials, with "a small but growing number" of commercial deployments, IHS said.
Commercial deployments have taken place in Japan and China. "And service providers in North America and Europe are also leading the charge to deploy SDN, and are anticipated to account for 13% of total 2015–2020 SDN revenue," IHS said.
