SDN controllers and Ethernet switches in-use for SDN in enterprise and data center networks will grow to $3.1 billion by 2017, said Infonetics Research.
Wide scale in-use SDN deployments will occur first in the data center with large enterprises and cloud service providers, followed closely by the enterprise LAN.
The report says SDN is going through a classic market adoption cycle, with many new entrants looking to gain a toe-hold, and the majority of enterprises still kicking the tires.
Vendors shipping SDN products in 2013 include Alcatel-Lucent, Big Switch, Brocade, Cisco, Cumulus, Dell, Extreme, HP, Huawei, IBM, Juniper, Midokura, NEC, Pica8, Plexxi, Plumgrid, VMware and others.
The few early deployments for SDN — Google, NTT, AT&T, Verizon, DT, BT, and China Mobile — are in large data centers of cloud service providers and large enterprises.
10 percent of Ethernet switches will be in-use for SDN by 2017.
North America is where SDN got its start, and the region will claim nearly 50 percent SDN revenue market share through 2017.
Cliff Grossner, directing analyst for data center and cloud at Infonetics Research, said: “We’re already seeing significant use cases for SDN in the enterprise LAN providing security and unification of wired and wireless networks, and enabling BYOD (bring your own device).”
