The global market for carrier software-defined networking (SDN) software, hardware and services is expected to grow from $103 million in 2014 to $5.7 billion in 2019, according to market research firm IHS. IHS also predicts service providers around the world to increase their spending on SDN software by 15 times from 2015 to 2019 as service providers seek service agility and operational efficiency in their networks to stay competitive.
SDN software - including network apps, such as traffic analytics, and orchestration and controller software — is the critical element that will convert a network into a software-defined network.
According to IHS, due to the newness of SDN technology and the fundamental changes it brings to networks, there is an incredible demand for expertise to design, deploy and operate SDN-based services, and carriers are looking to vendors for this expertise. In addition, IHS expects outsourced services for SDN projects to grow at a 2014–2019 CAGR of 199 percent.
Michael Howard, senior research director for carrier networks at IHS
We’re still early in the long-term, 10- to 15-year transformation of service provider networks to SDN. Momentum is strong, but we won’t see widespread commercial deployments where bigger parts of — let alone whole — networks are controlled by SDN until 2016 through 2020.
