Data center SDN to grow over 70 percent in 2015, says research firm

As cloud providers virtualize more functions in their networks, the data center SDN market is forecast to grow over 70 percent in 2015, according to a new Dell'Oro Group study. The research firm said that 2015 marked an important SDN milestone, with a number of vendors' Ethernet Switch architectures ratified and production deployments under way.

Alan Weckel, VP at Dell'Oro Group, said in a release that SDN's influence continued to be felt in the Ethernet switch market as "deployments expanded beyond the large Cloud Providers."

Cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft Azure (NASDAQ: MSFT) continue to invest in 25 and 50 Gigabit Ethernet network infrastructure. Weckel said that the research firm expects "to see significant disruption amongst the vendors with Dell's planned acquisition of EMC being a prelude to further market consolidation." Release