What is it that’s driving enterprises to the cloud?

That’s a long list: Web-based storage, stability, easier remote access and reductions in maintenance and associated costs are a few of the most frequently cited reasons. But, the number one application on organizations’ minds when they’re mapping out cloud migration strategies is disaster recovery (DR). Consequently, disaster recovery has become a primary source of value for enterprises who are not only pursuing cloud adoption, but who are also building out hybrid- or multi-cloud strategies.

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For decades, enterprises have relied on the public internet for business-critical SaaS applications and data traffic. The reason why is pretty simple: it’s cost-efficient, it’s easy to use and it’s already there. Compare that to the logistical, financial and implementation challenges of installing an alternative private network, and it’s clear why enterprises have been pretty content with the internet for their entire digital lives.

And, if there’s one thing clear about the public internet today, it’s that it no longer cuts it. Rampant DDoS attacks and other cyber threats posed by hackers, rogue employees and nation-states have not just revealed the security, reliability and transparency cracks in the public internet — they’ve blown them wide open.

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Over the past few years, there have been a multitude of reports predicting that widespread SDN adoption is not only inevitable, but explosive. IDC published a study of the SDN market earlier this year and predicted a 53.9% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) from 2014 through 2020, by which point the market will be valued at $12.5b.

However, SDN itself remains largely out of sight in proof-of-concept trials. While that means it hasn't found much of a home in commercial projects, some companies have fully integrated SDN with their business plans. These companies include Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft.

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Earlier this year, IDC published a study predicting a 53.9% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for the SDN market from 2014 to 2020, by which point it will be valued at $12.5 billion. If you interpolate from the numbers given and the CAGR, you'll find that the current valuation of the SDN market is roughly $0.61b. $610m is nothing to scoff at, but it suggests that SDN deployments are still fairly uncommon. That will change in 2017.

A universal SDN protocol or standard will accelerate adoption

As SDN proliferates, more potential standards will present themselves, but we could all save a lot of time if we could agree on an interoperable protocol early on. That agreement will come in 2017 and be the catalyst for the rate of growth IDC has predicted. The merger of the Open Networking Foundation and ON.Lab (under the ONF name) makes ONF a candidate to be the standard, but there's some competition, as well.

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