The data center and enterprise SDN market is set to grow more than 15-fold by 2019, according to recent research from IHS.

The research says the availability of branded bare metal switches and use of SDN by enterprises and smaller cloud service providers (CSPs) will drive growth, leading to the market boom. IHS predicts the in-use software-defined networking market, including Ethernet switches and controllers, will reach $13 billion in 2019, up from $781 million in 2014 as a result.

“The SDN market is still forming, and the top market share slots will change hands frequently, but currently the segment leaders are Dell, HP, VMware and White Box,” explains Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., research director for data center, cloud and SDN at IHS.

“SDN will cross the chasm in 2016, with SDN in-use physical Ethernet switches accounting for 10% of Ethernet switch market revenue,” Grossner says.

According to Grossner, SDN spells opportunity for existing and new vendors. He says the leaders in the SDN market serving the enterprise data center will be solidified during the next two years, as 2015 lab trials give way to live production deployments.

The research reveals bare metal switches are the top in-use for SDN-capable switch use case, while also forecasts SDN network virtualisation overlays (NVOs) will go mainstream in 2016.

The IHS research tracked SDN controllers and Ethernet switches in-use for SDN separately from not-in-use SDN-capable Ethernet switches. The research covered several vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Arista, Big Switch, Brocade, Centec, Cisco, Cumulus, Dell, Extreme, HP, Huawei, Juniper, Lenovo, Midokura, NEC, Pica8, Plexxi, and PLUMgrid.