Dell'Oro Group

Jeff Heynen, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group, reports that 2026 marks a significant upward trend for US fiber infrastructure investment, driven by private operator expansion, cable operator HFC upgrades with fiber buildouts, and BEAD funding flowing to early-qualifying states like Louisiana, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Siân Morgan, Research Director at Dell'Oro Group, discusses how AI ops features in enterprise networking have evolved from cutting-edge capabilities to standard vendor offerings, while full network autonomy remains elusive due to technical and trust challenges, accompanied by a value shift from hardware to recurring software licenses.

Gary Bolton, President of Fiber Broadband Association, Jaimie Lenderman, Research Manager at Omdia, and Jeff Heynen, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group, led discussions at Fiber Connect 2025 in Nashville, where the event celebrated graduating over 1,000 fiber optic technicians and showcased industry advancements. The conference highlighted the industry's dedication to expansion through AI and quantum networking solutions, while setting the stage for its 2026 edition in Orlando.

Baron Fung, Senior Research Director at Dell'Oro Group, examines data center infrastructure markets with emphasis on servers and connectivity, tracking the evolution from current 112 gigabit SerDes supporting 400 gigabit ports to emerging 224 gigabit SerDes enabling 800 gigabit speeds for GPU platforms. He highlights that accelerator platforms now advance every 18 months or less, driving the ecosystem toward Ethernet-based solutions and the upcoming transition to 440 gigabit SerDes networks to support next-generation AI and accelerated computing requirements.

Mauricio Sanchez, Sr. Director of Enterprise Security & Networking Research at Dell'Oro Group, predicts significant growth for NaaS, bringing a cloud-like experience to networks. Sanchez anticipates a convergence between NaaS and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), leading to a future where NaaS revolutionizes business operations through scalability, cost efficiency, and advanced security features.

Siân Morgan, Research Director at Dell'Oro Group, outlines three categories of Campus Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) vendors: turnkey offers, Campus NaaS enablers for MSPs, and LAN as a utility services. These vendors distinguish themselves through business models and technology integration, aiming to convert CapEx to OpEx and address advanced goals beyond the capabilities of traditional systems.

Lucas Beran, Principal Analyst at Dell'Oro Group, examines the growing importance of data center liquid cooling technologies. He outlines advancements in single-phase and two-phase direct chip liquid cooling, as well as immersion cooling, to meet the demands of high-density computing and AI workloads.

Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group, examines the rapid evolution of AI workload networks, highlighting accelerated refresh cycles and increasing bandwidth demands. She discusses the competition between InfiniBand and Ethernet in the AI cluster market, noting Ethernet's growing adoption due to technological advancements and hyperscaler preferences.

Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President of Dell'Oro Group, highlights the emergence of large AI applications necessitating a new AI backend network, presenting a significant market opportunity. By 2027, two-thirds of these backend network ports will be 1.6T, and all will be at least 800 gig, indicating the industry's growing interest in the AI Network market, which will be further explored in an upcoming AI Network report.

Mauricio Sanchez, Research Director at Dell'Oro Group, lauded MEF's Network as a Service vision for bringing order to numerous standards and providing a clear industry direction, emphasizing the importance of on-demand secure connectivity and the judicious use of APIs. Sanchez concluded that the future will be dominated by APIs, underscoring the need to focus on useful APIs rather than creating them indiscriminately.

Stefan Pongratz, Vice President and Analyst at Dell'Oro Group, highlighted the significant growth in public mobile broadband and the emerging focus on new growth areas like fixed wireless access and private wireless in the networking industry. Pongratz also emphasized the need for a balance between exploring these new opportunities and maintaining current revenue streams, reflecting recent trends observed in Barcelona's market events.

Will boom time continue for physical data center infrastructure deployments? What new technologies and significant installations will we see? Here are 3 predictions from Dell’Oro Group’s Lucas Beran.

Will the SD-WAN, SASE, and network security markets continue to grow in 2023 or are they susceptible to weaker macro economics? Here are 3 predictions from Dell’Oro Group’s Mauricio Sanchez.

Will fiber deployments continue to accelerate this year? Will cable operators move quickly with DOCSIS 4.0? Here are 3 predictions from Dell’Oro Group’s Jeff Heynen.

Here are 3 predictions from Dell’Oro Group’s Sameh Boujelbene on data center switching in 2023.

Can the high level of investment in 5G infrastructure continue in 2023? What segments of mobile infrastructure will continue to grow? Here are 3 predictions from Dell’Oro Group’s Stefan Pongratz.

Will spending on enterprise WLAN equipment continue its growth trajectory in 2023? Have prices hit a peak? Here are 3 predictions from Dell’Oro Group’s Siân Morgan.

Siân Morgan, Research Director for the Enterprise WLAN at Dell'Oro Group, reports a significant expansion in the enterprise-class wireless LAN market, with three consecutive quarters of over 40% YoY revenue growth due to the increased importance of wireless LAN in operations during COVID-19. Despite supply constraints and rising costs, revenues remained high and are expected to return to normal growth patterns beyond 2025, with new features such as access to the 6 GHz band and AI operations enhancing the capabilities of wireless LAN equipment and the emerging trend of campus network-as-a-service simplifying Wi-Fi for enterprises.

Stefan Pongratz, Vice President and Analyst at Dell'Oro Group, discussed the evolution of private wireless, noting its shift from macros to small cells and now to enterprise wireless, and its accelerated growth due to the availability of the CBRS spectrum. Despite private wireless currently representing only 1-2% of the overall RAN market, Pongratz revealed a 60% year-over-year growth in private wireless RAN revenues in 2Q 2023, but cautioned that it will take time for it to become a larger market share.

Mauricio Sanchez, Research Director at Dell'Oro Group, emphasizes the convergence of security and networking across three edges - user, application, and traditional WAN - in the Next Generation Enterprise space. He explains that these edges are evolving with technologies like SD-WAN, SASE, and multi-cloud networking, and are increasingly being offered as a service.

As applications become highly distributed to edge locations, new opportunities open for telcos. The challenge for telcos is how to gain a foothold in this space when the hyperscale cloud operators already are capturing enterprise workloads. Here is some market analysis from Mauricio Sanchez, Dell'Oro Group.