The global market for network functions virtualization (NFV) is expected to reach $11.6 billion in 2019, up from $2.3 billion in 2015, according to IHS. “NFV represents operators’ shift from a hardware focus to software focus, and our forecasts show this,” said Michael Howard, senior research director for carrier networks at IHS, in a release. “We believe NFV software will comprise over 80 percent of the $11.6 billion total NFV revenue in 2019.” He added that the software is always a much larger investment than the server, storage and switch hardware, representing about $4 of every $5 spent on NFV.
