Digital Lifescapes

Enterprise networking is experiencing a significant transformation, similar to the telecom service provider sector. The data center and enterprise software‑defined networking (SDN) market increased by 82 percent in 2015 from the prior year -- reaching $1.4 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by IHS. New SDN use cases continue to emerge, with 2015 including the establishment of the SD-WAN market. Many new startups vendors, WAN optimization appliance vendors and some enterprise networking vendors have entered the market, now IHS has forecast SD-WAN revenue to reach $1.3 billion by 2020. Growth for SDN-capable Ethernet switches and SDN controllers continues to grow, with early players, pure-play SDN startups and traditional switch vendors gaining traction as customer deployments escalate. Enterprise SDN Market Development Trends Regionally, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) were all...

Cloud computing infrastructure vendor revenue for public and private cloud grew by 21.9 percent year-over-year to reach $29 billion in 2015, with the fourth quarter (4Q15) growing 15.7 percent to $8.2 billion, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Compared to overall global IT infrastructure spending, the share of cloud IT infrastructure sales climbed to 32.2 percent in 4Q15 -- that's up from 28.6 percent a year ago. Revenue from infrastructure sales to private cloud grew by 17.5 percent to $3.3 billion, and to public cloud by 14.6 percent to $4.9 billion. By comparison, revenue in the traditional (non-cloud) IT infrastructure segment decreased by 2.7 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter 2015, with declines in all three technology segments (server, storage and networking). Cloud Computing Market Development All three technology markets showed strong year-over-year growth in both private and public cloud segments, except...

Hardware vendor revenue from sales of infrastructure products  -- including server, storage, and ethernet switches -- for all cloud computing use-cases, grew by 25.1 percent year over year to nearly $6.3 billion in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15). This was the second highest growth in the five quarters of tracking year-over-year revenue growth, and the second largest in terms of the total spending in nine quarters, according to findings from the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Cloud IT infrastructure spending climbed to nearly 30 percent of overall IT infrastructure spending in 1Q15 -- that's up from 26.4 percent a year ago. Revenue from infrastructure sales for private cloud grew 24.4 percent year over year to $2.4 billion while sales for public cloud grew 25.5 percent to $3.9 billion. In comparison, the non-cloud IT infrastructure segment increased by 6.1 percent in the first quarter, largely driven by increased sales of servers whi...

Revenues for the European wholesale telecommunications market remained steady between 2010 and 2011, despite the economic downturn, intense competition, and regulatory actions. According to the latest market study by Ovum, the European wholesale market was worth $48.4 billion in 2011, that's only 0.5 percent less than in 2010, representing 11 percent of the leading wholesalers' total European revenues. Ovum's analysis of the size of the European wholesale telecoms market, based on the reported results of the 25 leading wholesalers, reveals a highly concentrated market. In 2011 the top four wholesalers in Europe (BT, Deutsche Telekom, FT-Orange and Telefonica) accounted for over 50 percent of total European wholesale revenue, with the top 10 responsible for nearly 75percent of the total. Yet almost all of the leading wholesalers in Europe experienced falling revenues from fixed voice. While some are mitigating the effect of this decline by broadening the attractivene...

The legacy telecommunications sector was challenged continuously by upstarts during last year, as these savvy over-the-top companies targeted the incumbent's customers with attractive offers. That being said, 2013 will be equally challenging. Global telecom service provider revenues exceeded $2 trillion in 2012, with 60 percent of that amount going to mobile network operators, according to the latest market study by Ovum . No doubt, more competitors will seek to tap that huge market in 2013. While overall revenue growth is expected to be minimal, Ovum believes some segments will still have above-average growth, and significant incremental revenues over the next five years at each level of the value chain. Ovum's global analysts have revealed that mobile broadband presents the single largest opportunity for legacy service providers to win back revenue. Their forecasts show mobile broadband growing 19.2 percent annually and generating $122.9 billion in incremental revenue...

Wireline telecommunications data services is a growing business communications category that includes expenditures on wide area network (WAN) data transport services. These enterprise communication services include dedicated cable, DSL, network-based IP VPN, T1, frame relay, ATM, and Ethernet services. MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) service is also part of this group. It's a high-performance telecom network offering that directs and carries data from one network node to the next with the help of labels -- making it easy to create virtual links between distant nodes. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , MPLS network services are becoming more popular and business spending will reach $2.4 billion in 2015. “MPLS is communication protocol agnostic and highly scalable,” says Greg Potter, Analyst at In-Stat. It was designed to provide a unified data-carrying service for both circuit-based clients and packet-switching clients. A number of different technolo...

The early implementations of IPTV service deployments mirrored the legacy cable and satellite service models -- they were channel-centric offerings with the same strengths and weaknesses. None were inherently designed in preparation for the transformation to on-demand video applications. Infonetics Research released the results of its latest market study which captures service provider updated requirements for IP-based set-top boxes (STBs) -- to deliver pay-TV video entertainment services that can compete with Over-the-Top offerings. "Although low-cost set-top boxes designed to deliver basic video services over broadband infrastructure were the hallmark of IPTV services, strong competition and the need to increase ARPU have led to significant changes in STB design over the years, says Teresa Mastrangelo, directing analyst for video at Infonetics Research . The STB remains the most visible point of interaction between subscribers and IPTV providers and is a key component to a...

An increase in digital media use and networked devices in the home -- such as media tablets, set top boxes (STB), HDTVs, smartphones, and web-enabled media players -- has generated a much higher interest in and need for capable home network delivery systems. Although Wi-Fi networks are still the most dominant form of home networks, the demand for more bandwidth-consuming applications is causing service providers to turn to wired networking solutions that can deliver higher speeds with more reliability than wireless 802.11x standards. That demand propelled non-Ethernet home networking node shipments past the 40 million units in 2010, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "Wiring a home with Ethernet is costly and often requires service providers to send out technicians to drill through walls and pull Cat5 cabling," says Vahid Dejwakh, Analyst at In-Stat. Instead, service providers are turning to existing home wiring, which can deliver their network -- such ...

Infonetics Research released its latest quarterly home networking devices market forecast -- which tracks, ranks, and analyzes vendors that make residential gateways, broadband routers, powerline adapters, coax-Ethernet adapters, and home network attached storage (NAS). Sales of home networking devices grew 11 percent in 2010, to $5.15 billion, on the heels of a 46 percent jump the previous year, with all segments of the market posting increases. "We're expecting a challenging year for residential gateways this year, as operators have a lot of inventory on hand. They're also having trouble adding new DSL and cable subscribers, said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access at Infonetics Research . This overall trend will keep the market flat in 2011 -- despite strong sales of Homeplug Powerline adapters, MoCA coax-Ethernet adapters, and some home NAS devices. The Infonetics market study highlights include: - Quarter-over-quarter, the home network device...

The digital home Local Area Network (LAN) will increasingly become instrumental in enabling HD video distribution within a residence, and in particular emerging over-the-top (OTT) video entertainment services. Wired Ethernet is still the preferred method to interconnect devices on the network, such as broadband routers and digital media player set-top boxes. However, in larger homes there are times where using Ethernet cables isn't practical. Most consumers attempt to use Wi-Fi routers to provide wireless connectivity. Using a legacy Wi-Fi router to stream HD video can be problematic, because high-definition video requires greater bandwidth. New high-speed gigabit routers are therefore becoming the preferred wireless home networking standard. 2009 was a premier year for the latest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11n. The current 802.11n devices showed significantly stronger growth than 802.11g, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . 802.11n grew 76 percent year-over-year -- ...

U.S. video content producers say they're determined not to follow in the footsteps of the music recording industry, and for good reason. When consumers send you a signal that demand is shifting, you need to be ready and willing to adapt -- with an open mind. Nearly 37 percent of broadband households in North America are extremely or very interested in viewing Over-the-Top (OTT) video content on the Connected TV, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . Yes, this is a significant shift in consumer behavior. While DVD media demand is in decline, the online demand is growing as companies such as Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, and Apple, offer streamed or downloadable TV episodes and movie content. Similarly, a growing set of web-enabled TV devices are now proliferating across device categories that include digital TV sets, Blu-ray Players, Digital Media Adapters (DMAs), network attached storage, and set-top boxes (STBs). "By 2013, In-Stat predicts that nearly 40 percent of all d...

In 2009, much of the dialog about plans to incorporate Internet access into all manner of consumer devices was just that, mostly talk and little action. However, this year the increasing popularity of Internet-enabled consumer electronics (CE) is now considered a key growth driver for the digital entertainment industry. Over-the-top (OTT) video services are increasingly offering compelling alternatives to traditional pay-TV services, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . New alternative offerings -- such as Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and Blockbuster -- offer streamed or downloadable TV and movie content. Ad-supported online TV programming portals, such as Hulu, TV.com, and YouTube, have expanded into full-length video content. Web-enabled devices, which are a necessity to access these OTT services, are now proliferating across device categories that include TVs, Blu-ray Players, Digital Media Adapters (DMAs), network attached storage, and set-top boxes. "Most web-enabled ...

Most traditional wireline data services spending by U.S. businesses has been consistently falling in 2009, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . However, there are a few exceptions to this trend. Overall, In-Stat expects a nearly 2 percent decline in U.S. business spending on wireline data services -- which represents the first time this market has declined in the 10 plus years In-Stat has been tracking it. Wireline data services include expenditures on wide area network (WAN) data transport services, as well as, dedicated Internet access (which includes cable and DSL), network-based IP VPN, private line, frame relay, ATM, and Ethernet services. Note, the category does not include managed services, such as, hosted IP telephony, LAN infrastructure, security, and other managed service solutions, which are tracked separately by In-Stat. "Ethernet Services and IP VPN services are among the lone bright spots in the market," says David Lemelin, In-Stat analyst. Spending...

As the number of connected consumer electronics (CE) devices continues to grow, network connectivity becomes a challenge. Home network technologies such as coax and powerline are making inroads, however the latest market study by ABI Research indicates that wireless will remain the dominant method. Connected consumer electronics devices are an important part of the emerging and quickly growing home media network. Consumers are becoming more comfortable with the idea of delivering audio and video content throughout the home, on a variety of devices. These devices include HDTVs, video game consoles, networked music receivers, and more. However, as these components are frequently scattered around the home, away from the router, wired connections are often not practical. As a result, Wi-Fi connections in consumer electronics devices will rise from 113 million in 2008 to more than 285 million by 2012. "While many consumer electronics devices initially adopted Ethernet connections due ...

Home network users are continuing to migrate to newer and faster home networking connectivity technologies, including Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi and alternative wire technologies -- such as coax, powerline and phone wiring. In 2008, 10/100 Ethernet was still the leading technology in use with home networks worldwide. However, 802.11x networks will outnumber 10/100 Ethernet by the end of 2009, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. In addition, many Wi-Fi users have transitioned (or are transitioning) from 802.11b to the more robust 802.11g, and some have begun to upgrade from 802.11g to draft 802.11n-compatible wireless network products. "Another notable trend is that the use of home networks for more than just Internet sharing among North American users increased from 41.8 percent in 2008 to 49.7 percent in 2009," says Joyce Putscher, In-Stat analyst. But most consumers have not yet bridged the chasm between the PC and consumer electronics (CE) worlds by addin...

Infonetics Research tracks vendor market share and market size for multi-service access platforms (MSAPs) and IP digital subscriber line access multiplexers (IP DSLAMs) in China, India, Japan, South Korea, the rest of Asia Pacific, and the region as a whole. "The Asia Pacific region represents the largest broadband aggregation hardware opportunity in the world, with China leading the way. The amount of money being spent in China on broadband aggregation equipment is astounding, thanks to a swelling middle class, aggressive national broadband initiatives, and heightened competition among China's newly-restructured telcos to launch premium broadband services and hold on to subscribers," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and video at Infonetics Research. Although the overall DSL market is shrinking due to the shift from copper to fiber-based PON and Ethernet FTTH, the decline will be slowed by service providers deploying ADSL2+ and VDSL2 to deliver triple pla...

By 2013, the average household will have 2.5 times as many digital media devices -- computing, gaming, stationary digital consumer electronics, portable and mobile wireless devices -- in use as compared with 2008, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. Accompanying this adoption will be a rise in the number of these devices that are network-enabled, leveraging various wired mediums and wireless technologies, like coax, phone wiring, powerline, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi. Networking over wiring that already exists in homes is becoming increasingly important. This is particularly the case among broadband service provider entertainment networks that connect set-top boxes together and to residential gateways. "Over the next few years, service providers will drive the growth of in-home networks" says Joyce Putscher, In-Stat analyst. Digital media entertainment networks tie set-top boxes together, enabling additional services, such as whole-home DVR. Providers will encourage mor...

Infonetics Research released its microwave equipment market size, market share, and forecast report. The report tracks access and backhaul/transport PDH/SDH microwave equipment and Ethernet and dual Ethernet/TDM microwave equipment. "The big trend in the microwave equipment market is the transition from TDM to Ethernet. Microwave enables mobile operators to make phased upgrades of their backhaul networks from TDM-only to hybrid TDM/Ethernet systems to packet-based all-Ethernet solutions in the future, said Richard Webb, Infonetics Research analyst. This offers a scalable and cost-effective roadmap for managing the escalating bandwidth demands driven by the mobile broadband boom, and future 4G deployments. Typically, operators will keep legacy TDM microwave for another 5-10 years to support 2G/3G voice while deploying Ethernet for growing volumes of data traffic. The Infonetics market study highlights include: - Worldwide microwave equipment sales hit $4.9 billion in 2008, up 23 pe...