Global SDN and NFV Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

Global SDN and NFV Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

Virtualization is enabling network architects to design, implement, and manage network services far more efficiently than ever before. Software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) are two of the key capabilities fostering this transformation. While both SDN and NFV make networking architectures more flexible and dynamic, they perform different roles in defining those architectures and the infrastructure they support.

Software-defined networking (SDN) manages networks by separating the control plane from the forwarding plane. Architects and administrators use software to configure and manage network functions via a centralized control point. This approach creates dynamic, agile, and scalable networks that use the virtualized infrastructure of modern data centers to respond rapidly to changing business requirements.

Network functions virtualization (NFV) decouples network functions from proprietary hardware appliances (routers, firewalls, VPN terminators, SD-WAN, etc.) and delivers equivalent network functionality without the need for specialized hardware. These virtual network functions (VNF) run on high-performance x86 servers and offer the distinct advantage of on-demand deployment.

Market Overview:

The latest research study on the global SDN and NFV market finds that the global SDN and NFV market reached a value of USD 38457.45 million in 2022. It’s expected that the market will achieve USD 97391.65 million by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 16.75% during the forecast period.

User-side endogenous demand is urgent

Different from the traditional network technology upgrade driven by equipment vendors, SDN and NFV have been driven by the initial demanders of the network, that is, Internet companies and telecom operators as the main force since their birth. SDN and NFV are the core technologies and paths that Internet companies and telecom operators choose when facing the future network, so as to better enhance their competitiveness and create greater network value. The technical characteristics of SDN and NFV can and must solve various problems faced by traditional networks, and support the demand of Internet companies and telecom operators for next generation networks.
With the development of cloud computing, big data and other emerging information technology business applications, new business applications have higher and higher demand for the network, and flexibility, scalability and ease of use have become the basic capabilities that operators must have in the future network. It will be the key of the future network that users can open the virtual network with guaranteed quality on their own demand. Therefore, the emergence of SDN and NFV technologies has quickly become the focus of operators' attention.

SDN and NFV Market Challenges

After being bound to proprietary and expensive hardware and software packages for many years, many enterprises are excited about the development prospects of SDN and NFV. These methods provide new freedom and flexibility, but with the development of data center technology, some enterprises feel that they have fallen behind. The industry potential of SDN and NFV will be challenged and affected.
Enterprises, mobile operators and data centers have always built their network infrastructure based on their custom-designed physical hardware and software. Examples include gateways, switches, routers, network load balancers, mobile cores and mobile applications in wireless access networks, such as vEPC, vCPE, vRAN, and security applications (such as firewall, NGFW, IDS/IPS, SSL/IPSe offload devices, DLP and anti-virus applications).

Region Overview:

In global comparison, a significant portion of the revenue was generated in Asia-Pacific (34.06% in 2022).

Company Overview:

Cisco is one of the major players operating in the SDN and NFV market, holding a share of 17.73% in 2022.

Cisco

Cisco Systems, Inc. provides information technology and networking services. The Company offers enterprise network security, software development, data collaboration, cloud computing, and other related services.

VMware

VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control.
VMware work to harness the next wave of innovation and solve our customers toughest challenges through disruptive technologies, like edge computing, AI, blockchain, machine learning, Kubernetes, and more.

Segmentation Overview:

By type, SDN segment accounted for the largest share of market in 2022.

SDN

SDN is a networking architecture which aims to improve overall network performance and make networks agile and flexible by enabling a dynamic and programmatically efficient network configuration. SDN is a technology that separates control plane management of network devices from underlying data plane that forwards network traffic in order to enable more automated provisioning and policy-based management of network resources.

NFV

NFV is a network architecture which aims to accelerate service deployment for network operators and reduce cost by separating functions like firewall or encryption from dedicated hardware and moving them to virtual servers, collapsing various functions into a physical server, which ultimately reduces overall cost. NFV allows various network operators to implement network policy without being taken care of where to place functions in network and how to route traffic through these functions.

Application Overview:

The market's largest segment by application is the segment Telecom and IT, with a market share of 57.81% in 2022.

Key Companies in the global SDN and NFV market covered in Chapter 3:

IBM
NEC
Broadcom
Ciena
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company
Juniper Networks
Nokia
Amdocs
Cisco
Huawei
Arista Networks
Ericsson
VMware
Oracle
Dell

In Chapter 4 and Chapter 14.2, on the basis of types, the SDN and NFV market from 2018 to 2029 is primarily split into:

SDN
NFV

In Chapter 5 and Chapter 14.3, on the basis of Downstream Industry, the SDN and NFV market from 2018 to 2029 covers:

Telecom and IT
BFSI
Government and Public Utilities
Manufacturing
Others

Geographically, the detailed analysis of consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate, historic and forecast (2018-2029) of the following regions are covered in Chapter 8 to Chapter 14:

North America (United States, Canada)
Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland, Sweden)
Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia)
Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina)
Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa)