Networking

Networking: The AI-Driven Shift to High-Speed Interconnections and Sustainable Bandwidth

Enterprise networking is the transport system for advanced technologies on-premises and in the cloud. The landscape of data  center networking has shifted in the past few years to focus less on cloud computing and direct Internet access, and now is  primarily focused on providing high-speed interconnections for AI workloads. Bandwidth is increasing rapidly as AI models  evolve and require more and more resources to execute in a reasonable amount of time. Innovation in the market must  also embrace sustainability to ensure that development doesn’t outpace the ability of modern data center infrastructure to  provide power and cooling. 

When working on strategy, product, marketing, and sales initiatives, consider intelligence from our expert analysts – planned deliverables for 2026 include:

  • Analyst Insight Report – a report on critical issues in the industry  
  • State of the Market Report – a report on technology, markets, products, and vendors
  • Futurum Signal Report Access – any Signal Report published in the relevant practice area

Market Taxonomy

The Networking Market, by Submarket

The submarkets Futurum's Market Data model sizes and forecasts across this practice.

  • Campus & Branch

    Campus Ethernet switches, wireless LAN, and campus fabric and access.

  • Data Center Networking

    Leaf-spine DC switches, interconnect, NICs and DPUs, and fabric automation.

  • Optical & Transport

    DWDM and OTN transport, coherent optics, and fiber infrastructure.

  • Storage Networking

    Fibre Channel SAN fabrics and InfiniBand interconnect.

  • WAN & SD-WAN

    SD-WAN, WAN edge routers, optimization, and managed WAN.

  • Network Management & Automation

    Monitoring, automation and orchestration, AIOps, and experience monitoring.

  • Network as a Service

    Subscription campus, WAN, and cloud-managed networking.

  • Cloud Networking

    Native cloud networking and multi-cloud connectivity.

  • Platform & Core Services

    DDI (DNS, DHCP, and IPAM) and content delivery networks.

  • Network Security

    NGFW, SASE and SSE, NAC, IDS and IPS, and DDoS mitigation.

  • Edge Networking & IoT

    Edge routers, IoT and industrial networking, and multi-access edge compute.

  • Application Delivery

    ADCs, cloud load balancing, and service mesh.

Also decomposed by industry vertical and region.

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The Latest NEWS

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Tom Hollingsworth, Advisor at Futurum, shares his insights on the rise of scale-across AI networking design. He focuses on how it can alleviate resource constraints and create more capacity for...
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Benjamin Brown, VP Custom Research, Futurum Research

Benjamin Brown

VP, Custom Research · The Futurum Group

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