The software-defined networking (SDN) market (Ethernet switches and controllers) will reach $13 billion in 2019, up from $781 million in 2014, as the availability of branded bare metal switches and use of SDN by enterprises and smaller cloud service providers (CSPs) drive growth, according to a newly published IHS Infonetics’ biannual Data Center and Enterprise SDN Hardware and Software report.
Some highlights:
- SDN still spells opportunity for existing and new vendors; the leaders in the SDN market serving the enterprise data center will be solidified during the next 2 years as 2015 lab trials give way to live production deployments
- Bare metal switches are the top in-use for SDN-capable switch use case
- SDN network virtualization overlays (NVOs) will go mainstream in 2016
“The SDN market is still forming, and the top market share slots will change hands frequently, but currently the segment leaders are Dell, HP, VMware and White Box,” said Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., research director for data center, cloud and SDN at IHS.
