Scalable Software Defined Networking Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Scalable Software Defined Networking Market was valued at USD 12.61 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 63.04 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 30.75% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). On the basis of a study, by 2020, 40 to 45% of the network spending will be on Software Defined Networking. Therefore, SDN is a potential growth market for the networking vendors contributing to vast opportunities.

Key Highlights

• Software-defined networking (SDN) is the organization of network services by lower-level functionality abstraction and is a major shift in network architecture, which paves the way for unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) applications.
• The increase in the number of mobile devices and server visualization, along with the advent of cloud computing technologies are forcing enterprises to reexamine their conventional network architectures. Most of the conventional network architectures are hierarchical and they are built on tiers of Ethernet switches.
• Moreover, the aggressive efforts by the telecoms service provider to address the challenges of the traditional network is developing myriad new avenues for the software-defined networking market.
• The design of this type of networking framework is ill-suited to cope with dynamic computing and storage needs with respect to today’s enterprise networks. This has enforced companies to adopt new and advanced networking technologies such as SDN. SDN solutions have a dynamic and flexible network architecture that can respond to constantly-changing business and end-user requirements.
• The market is driven by the efficient network infrastructure, increasing mobility, and rising demand for cloud services. Moreover, the growth of the market is inhibited by a lack of awareness among buyers and standardization of networks.
• The increasing adoption of BYOD (bring your own device) and rapid technological advancements provide an opportunity for growth of the SDN market. However, there are security concerns as a centralized controller that can be the single point of attack and failure for SDN networks may hinder the growth of the market.

Key Market Trends

BYODs to Significantly Drive the Market Growth

• Various enterprises have always been opting for solutions that have a considerable number of computing devices and create advanced communication infrastructure. BYOD has an important impact on the enterprises, as it realizes the advantages, in terms of productivity, cost saving, and flexibility.
• According to a survey by Cisco, about 69% of the IT decision makers favor BYOD as a positive addition to workplace policy, as it saves workers’ time. In the United States, mobile workers account for nearly 90% of the workforce, as it provides improved collaboration and productivity, by uniting geographically distributed offices together, integrating and streamlining communications.
• Moreover, connected device penetration shows BYOD usage. More the connected device, more is the implementation of SDN to increase the productivity, efficiency and cost saving.
• Data breaches also offer compliance and privacy issues that expose the organization to the ire of regulatory bodies, along with the wrath of the public users.
• The SDN trend is projected to gain momentum, as an increasing number of companies are trying to leverage their SDN initiation, for the security of BYOD.

North America to Account for a Major Share

• North America is estimated to be the largest market for SDN, due to the early adoption of SDN solutions by the leading players on the continent.
• The growth of the SDN market in this region strongly correlates with the growth of end-user industries such as BFSI, healthcare, IT & telecom, amongst others.
• The SDN market in North America is witnessing the adoption of favorable standards and networking regulations, which are further boosting the SDN market.
• Research indicates that the number of cell phone users in the United States had exceeded 240 million in 2017. The number is poised to grow further in the upcoming years, further increasing the demand for SDN for mobility and developing a robust networking infrastructure.
• United States needs to invest up to USD 150 billion in fiber infrastructure over the course of years to cater to the ever-increasing networking demand, further fuelling the need for SDN in the country.
• The major players in the region's SDN market are IBM, Cisco Systems, Juniper Network, Hewlett-Packard. These companies are offered with immense growth potential in the SDN market, owing to the evolving business applications and services running through networks.

Competitive Landscape

The scalable software defined networking market is highly fragmented. The large companies, particularly from the telecom industry, are acquiring start-ups working on SDN technology. They are focusing on integrating various open source SDN platforms with their cloud computing platforms to better optimize and customize their network infrastructure. Some of the key players include Cisco Systems Inc., HPE, Intel Corporation, Big Switch Network, AT&T Inc., Pluribus Network, Plexxi Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., NEC Corporation, Arista Network, and IBM Corporation, among others.

• June 2019 - Big Switch Network, the Cloud-First Networking Company, announced it has entered into an OEM agreement with Mavenir, the industry’s only software-based, end-to-end cloud-native network solutions provider for CSPs, to include Big Cloud Fabric (BCF) in a fully tested and validated end-to-end NFV solution. Since entering into the strategic partnership, Mavenir and Big Switch are working with numerous customers to realize NFV deployments globally.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support