The software-defined networking (SDN) will be a $3.52 billion global market by 2018, according to Transparency Market Research. The market research firm’s new “Software Defined Networking (SDN) Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2012 – 2018” report predicts SDN spending worldwide will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 61.5% from 2012 to 2018.

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/software-defined-networking-sdn-market.html

The increasing need for efficient infrastructure and mobility, as well as the popularity of cloud services, will drive this growth, according to the report.  Transparency Market Research cites three main markets for SDN: enterprises, cloud services providers, and telecommunications services providers. Enterprises represented 35% of the SDN market in 2012. However, cloud service providers are expected to be the fastest growing market segment throughout the years the report covers. Transparency Research says that SDN’s ability to reduce opex and capex while enabling the delivery of new services will spearhead its use by cloud service providers.

Cloud provisioning and orchestration products currently dominate the global SDN market, the report states. SDN switching held the second largest revenue share of the SDN market in 2012. SDN products and applications also will be used to design, optimize, secure, and monitor the network, the market research firm predicts.  The report segments the global SDN market into users, products (including SDN switching, SDN controllers, cloud provisioning and orchestration, and others such as security and services), and region.

North America currently is the largest market for SDN technology, thanks to a high degree of standardization and favorable regulatory initiatives. Not surprisingly, Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region during forecast period, fueled by the increasing adoption of BYOD practices in China, India, and Australia.

In this early stage, the SDN industry is fragmented, the report asserts. Multiple players have moved to address different categories including hardware providers, software developers, and service providers. Transparency Research names Cisco, IBM, NEC, Juniper Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, VMware, HP, Google, Big Switch Networks, Arista Networks, Brocade Communications Systems, Verizon Communications, and Intel among the primary players.

Comment:  We think that the term “SDN” includes both ONF standards based (e.g. Open Flow) and vendor specific (e.g. Arista Networks) open networking solutions.   We wonder how large the SDN standards based market wii be.

Cyan Inc, a leading provider of software-defined networking (SDN) and packet-optical solutions for network operators, today announced that Pica8, Inc. has joined Blue Orbit, an ecosystem of partners focused on proving real-world, multi-vendor, software-defined network (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) applications. 

“The addition of Pica8 to the Blue Orbit Ecosystem demonstrates the supplier community’s desire to come together and push interoperability testing and real deployments forward,” said Joe Cumello, chief marketing officer at Cyan. “As Blue Orbit continues to grow, we are gaining invaluable insight into how we can help network operators such as carriers, data center operators and cloud companies slash OpEx, launch new services, and deliver a better customer experience.”

In June 2013, Blue Orbit was formed to demonstrate interoperability among SDN and NFV solutions from an array of partners to lessen the risk network operators would otherwise face and accelerate the deployment of production SDN and NFV use cases. Blue Orbit partners provide applicable solution elements to Cyan’s California-based Blue Orbit Lab. From this facility, Cyan, Blue Orbit partners, and customers are able to test and demonstrate the deployability of SDN solutions.

http://www.cyaninc.com/en/keep-up/press-releases/2013/pica8-joins-cyan/