Dell'Oro Group projects distributed cloud networking revenue to $21 billion by 2029

Dell'Oro Group published a research report that examined Distributed Cloud Networking and linked growing emphasis on coherent policy and unified visibility to buyer decisions.

The firm said DCN was gaining relevance as hybrid architectures and AI-era traffic patterns increased the operational penalty for fragmented control planes, and it described shifts in buyer preferences away from isolated upgrades toward more coherent operating models.

The research defined Distributed Cloud Networking as the platforms and services that deliver consistent connectivity, policy enforcement, and telemetry from users across the Wide Area Network (WAN) to distributed cloud and application edges spanning branch sites, data centers, and public clouds.

The report provided detailed coverage of three pillars identified as Cloud/Application Edge, WAN Middle Mile, and User/WAN Edge and described functional trends in each area, including application-aware steering and unified telemetry at the cloud edge, middle-mile emphasis on predictable transport and resiliency, and the convergence of secure access, Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), and policy enforcement at the user edge.

“DCN buyers are moving beyond isolated upgrades and are prioritizing architectures that reduce operational seams across connectivity, security, and telemetry so that incident response and change control can follow a single thread,” said Mauricio Sanchez, Sr. Director, Enterprise Security and Networking at Dell'Oro Group. “What makes DCN distinct is that it links user-to-application experience with where policy and visibility are enforced, which is why application-adjacent controls are now influencing WAN decisions that used to be driven primarily by transport,” said Sanchez.

The report projected worldwide DCN revenue would reach $21 billion by 2029, representing a 30 percent Compound Annual Growth rate (CAGR) over the five-year forecast period.