Unlike the software-defined network (SDN) — which is like network virtualization on steroids, but primarily datacenter-based — the software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) is essentially application routing capabilities for WANs, primarily everywhere but the data center. And it is getting a lot of market traction. While the forecasts vary wildly, SD-WAN will see only more growth as the Internet of Things (IoT) really starts to take off.
The numbers for the IoT market range from $16 billion in 2016, growing to $195 billion in 2023, all the way up to $1.29 trillion by 2020. Depending on your source, the number of IoT devices, sensors, and actuators will more than double to 46 billion by 2021.
