The global SDN market is estimated to reach USD 70.41 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Software defined networking has witnessed a surge in its popularity in the recent years and rightly so owing to the myriad benefits it offers over the existing legacy infrastructure. The SDN solutions provide centralized control and operational capabilities, which help the network administrators and engineers to respond quickly and efficiently. The SDN architecture comprises different tools and techniques, such as the controller, switches forwarding, and backplanes, among others, that make the systems more agile and flexible.
SDN acts as a bridge between the applications and routers and switches to relay information and data between them. As they provide a virtualized view of the network and storage, the SDN solutions help in deploying applications and services at a fast pace. The demand for SD solutions is anticipated to be on the rise as there is a growing necessity for the increasing operability and bandwidth of the carrier networks for service providers as well as large enterprises. The increasing data traffic due to increased mobile devices, social media cloud computing, and even Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to propel the data traffic in the coming years, which will create a steep demand for enhanced networks.
The CapEX and OpEX reduction afforded by the software defined networks, coupled with the pay-as-you-grow model, is helping the demand growth. The increasing applicability in the data center infrastructures and campus networks, as well as the presence of open source automation tools such as OpenStack, will fuel the market growth in the coming years. SD-WAN and convergence of SDN, NFV, and OpenFlow are the upcoming trends to watch for that may shape the developing industry.
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Further key findings from the report suggest:
- Software defined networking is anticipated to find Wide Area Networks (WAN) as the major use case in the coming years. Not only has SD-WAN been in the limelight of the SDN vendors for a long period now but the industry is also ripe for the adoption of the software defined WAN for enterprises which are looking to replace the existing MPLS systems that had been de facto for most major organizations.
- The industry is dotted by some major players including VMware, Alcatel-Lucent (Nokia), International Business Machines, Cisco Systems, and Juniper. Other prominent industry players are Plexxi, NEC Corporation, Google Inc., Huawei Corp., Hewlett-Packard, Brocade Communication Systems, Big Switch Networks, and AT&T, among others. The emergence of new companies that cater to specific niche clients or provide capabilities targeting particular functionalities is also on the rise.
- The new product development, industry players’ concentration on research and development activities, and developing cost effective products for a differential industry are the major strategic plans adopted by the industry players. Also, there has been an increasing focus on the partnership and collaborations in the industry. For example, in March 2015, Brocade announced that it had completed the acquisition of the SteelApp business unit from Riverbed Technology. The SteelApp product line helped the Brocade data center deployments and enhanced the Vyatta Platform offering for the NFV and SDN solutions.
