CAMPBELL, Calif. -- Network operators around the globe are moving toward software-defined networking (SDN), as shown by IHS's "SDN Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey" of worldwide carriers that represent 49 percent of the world's telecom capex and 46 percent of telecom revenue.

The study found that 82 percent of service provider respondents have either already deployed SDN, are now deploying SDN, or plan to evaluate it in 2015.

"The successful field trials and a few commercial deployments of SDN in the last year keep moving toward more commercial deployments in 2015, still mostly on a limited basis as operators put one or two use cases to the test under real-world conditions in their live networks," said Michael Howard, senior research director for carrier networks at IHS.

"Carriers are starting small with their SDN deployments and focusing on only parts of their network to ensure they can get the technology to work as intended. We see in the results of our SDN survey that though momentum is strong, it will be many years before we see bigger parts or a whole network that is controlled by SDN," Howard said.

SDN Strategies Survey Highlights
The #1 reason service providers are investing in SDN is to simplify and automate service provisioning, which they believe will lead to service agility and quick time to revenue.

Various barriers are becoming more prominent as operators get closer to commercial deployment; respondents to this year's survey cited integrating SDN into existing networks and immature technologies and products as the top 2 barriers.

Operators want SDN in most parts of their networks, with the top domains for deployment consisting of cloud services offered to customers, within and between data centers, and access for businesses.

SDN SURVEY SYNOPSIS
The 25-page 2015 IHS Infonetics SDN Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey is based on interviews with purchase-decision makers at 28 incumbent, competitive and mobile service providers from EMEA, Asia Pacific and North America that have evaluated or deployed SDNs in their networks or plan to do so. IHS asked operators about their strategies and timing for SDN, including deployment drivers and barriers, target domains, use cases and more. To purchase the report, please visit www.infonetics.com/contact.asp

IHS Inc.