IDC forecasts that the telco cloud infrastructure software market will grow to $27 billion by 2027

In a Jan. 17 press release, International Data Group (IDG) subsidiary International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasted that cloud-native deployment of telco network workloads will accelerate in 2024.

The IDC report, Worldwide Telco Cloud Infrastructure Software (NFVI, VNF, and CNF) Forecast, 2022-2027 (IDC #US50087723), predicts that worldwide revenue for telco cloud infrastructure software, including network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVI) virtual network functions (VNFs), and cloud-native network functions (CNFs), across core transport (CUPS adoption in core and edge routing and BNG), mobile cloud infrastructure, mobile backhaul, access networks, and virtual CPE, will grow to $27.3 billion in 2027, up from $12.9 billion in 2022, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1%.

IDC reports that, in making this forecast, it has accounted for the recent increase in initiatives to deploy cloud-native, container-based telco workloads across the telco cloud, and so the forecast breaks out cloud-native network functions as a separate line item. IDC also reports that although most current telco workloads continue to leverage VNFs, it expects rapid growth of the CNF market.

Ajeet Das, research director of telecom network infrastructure at IDC, said in the press release, "Adoption of cloud-native network functions is gaining momentum, with CNFs being deployed alongside virtual network functions across comms service providers' cloud-based digital infrastructure for service agility, lower cost of ownership, and elastic scaling of the network. However, these operators face a range of daunting challenges, including lack of in-house expertise in cloud-native orchestration and infrastructure, difficulty defining and implementing comprehensive security, and operational complexity of managing on-premises, cloud, and multi-cloud networks."

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