Trends in the networking market in 2024

The global network infrastructure and monitoring market is expected to grow in 2024 and beyond, according to reports studying this sector. The infrastructure segment is expected to total US$ 197.8 billion in 2024 and reach US$ 256.1 billion by 2028, representing a compound annual growth rate of 6.67 per cent over the period. In parallel, the real-time performance monitoring segment is expected to total US$ 4.6 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.84 per cent between 2023 and the end of the period.

And how is this market shaping up today and how will it advance in the coming years to generate this growth? Monitoring trends in order to define strategies and tactics is fundamental for datacenter operators, network managers and budget allocators to be able to act with precision and efficiency.

Auvik, a provider of network management solutions, recently compiled some trends that shaped 2023 and now point the way to the coming years. To create the list, Google Trends was used as a resource to reveal patterns and anomalies and address conversations about networks and cloud computing, as well as data that can be used by IT professionals to inform their strategy for 2024 and beyond. Here are some of the trends listed:

1. Growth of the Wi-Fi 7 market: By 2030, the market associated with the new version of the standard for wireless networks, Wi-Fi 7, is expected to reach US$ 24.2 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 57.2 per cent between 2023 and the end of the period. Government initiatives aimed at smart cities should drive the adoption of Wi-Fi 7. Furthermore, in Auvik‘s view, Wi-Fi 7 will transform the user experience and digital interactions, representing a new horizon to be explored by IT professionals.

2. Strong interest in “cloud computing security”: Auvik’s compilation identified a growing interest in the term “cloud computing security” among users outside the IT sector. According to Google Trends, searches using this term reached 97 per cent of their five-year peak in December 2023, following a general increase in recent years. This probably represents a change in the way companies manage digital security.

3. Microsoft Azure and AWS tied: According to a report by Statista, Azure’s popularity has grown in recent years, reaching a tie with Amazon Web Service (AWS) in terms of adoption among organisations with more than 1,000 employees. The adoption of public cloud services is usually motivated by the search for cost savings, greater recovery capacity in the face of security breaches or disasters, efficiency in terms of human and technological resources and ease of scaling operations.

4. IaaS with strong growth in 2024: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) should see high growth by the end of 2024 due to its importance for cloud applications. Gartner predicts that all segments of the cloud market will grow in 2024, but IaaS will see the greatest growth: IaaS, with a rate of 26.6 per cent, followed by Platform as a Service (PaaS) with 21.5 per cent. Auvik explains that investing in IaaS means less capital expenditure (CapEx) associated with IT infrastructure, as well as redundant and more robust security structures and better overall performance. It also offers more capacity to monitor applications and processes with less IT expenditure.

5. More investment in the cloud: Worldwide spending by end users on public cloud services will increase by 20.4 per cent to US$678.8 billion by 2024, according to Gartner’s forecast. Among the main drivers of this growth is, unsurprisingly, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). Organisations adopting AI solutions will turn to public clouds for the necessary infrastructure, but they must demand that cloud service providers address more than technical issues, such as costs, privacy and sustainability. Another trend is the rise of vertical-specific cloud platforms, which combine underlying Software as a Service (SaaS), PaaS and IaaS services into an offer with combinable features. Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 70 per cent of companies will be using industry-specific platforms, compared to less than 15 per cent in 2023.

6. Interest in “cloud costs”: Another term that has gained a lot of interest is “cloud costs”, with the term reaching 99% of its all-time high in the last month of 2023. This gain in popularity is an indication that companies around the world are looking for ways to optimise cloud spending as a direct result of two years of global economic recession, according to Auvik.

7. Record searches for “network security management”: in December 2023, this search reached a 15-year high, reinforcing a possible link with the Covid-19 pandemic and higher levels of remote working. Google Trends shows that this interest remained relatively stable between 2010 and 2020. However, searches for this term increased between the last week of 2021 and the first week of 2022, from 30 per cent of the current peak to 71 per cent two weeks later. This seems to have been a turning point as the increase in the number of searches became a “new normal”, explains Auvik.

8. Amazon matches Juniper Networks in terms of price: price is always an important differentiating criterion in many sectors, and among cloud computing service providers it’s no different. Customer evaluations collected by the Comparably website revealed that Amazon and Juniper Networks offer the best value for money in network solutions, says Auvik’s compilation. Next come Google, Microsoft and Cisco with slightly lower scores. At the beginning of the year, Juniper Networks was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for around US$14 billion.

9. Amazon and Google are tied on product quality: according to Comparably, Amazon and Google share first place on the product quality criterion, with Microsoft, Cisco and Juniper Networks occupying the next places on the list. In Auvik’s assessment, there is no certainty that these rankings will remain the same throughout 2024.

10. Edge Computing will gain momentum: The Edge Computing market is expected to total $15.6 billion by 2024 and reach $32.2 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.6 per cent over the forecast period. However, this is only the beginning, given that only half of the 65 per cent of companies using this technology today have fully integrated it into their network infrastructures. And with future integration, network management will have to be redefined. As Auvik explains, the trend is to see a wave of more distributed network infrastructures and an even greater number of data processing points. And this will require more visibility and more network control measures.