Worldwide NVFI revenues were just $564 million in 2017 but will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 58.1% over the 2017-2022 forecast period, reaching $5.6 billion in 2022, according to a new study from IDC.
In defining NFVI, IDC relies on ETSI’s proposed architecture to identify five segments: software-defined compute, networking, storage, management, and orchestration. IDC expects the orchestration segment will be the fastest growing, driven by the need to orchestrate network services dynamically across an increasingly complex smorgasbord of network functions – both physical and virtual – potentially across several vertical domains. Software-defined networking is also likely to grow significantly, driven by the growing need to programmatically manage network flows in response to a dynamic market and an application/use case environment – both within the telco cloud datacenter and across telco cloud deployments to manage services flows.
From a domain perspective, wireless infrastructure is the largest contributor to the NFVI forecast today and will continue to be the largest contributor throughout the forecast, followed by routing. 5G will be a big driver of wireless infrastructure NFVI growth, while the move to virtual routing in edge and access use cases will enable routing NFVI growth to outperform the overall market.
“Communications service providers globally recognize the need to digitally transform their network infrastructure and build more customer-centric business models. Embracing software-defined networking principles and deploying network functions in virtualized form factors are a strategic necessity not only for carriers as they invest in their future but also for vendors supplying those solutions to the market,” said Rajesh Ghai, research director, Carrier Network Infrastructure research at IDC. “NFVI is the foundation on which this vision rests and this forecast is IDC’s first effort to size this strategically important segment of carrier network infrastructure.”
