Worldwide revenue for Distributed Cloud Networking is projected to reach US$21 billion by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 30 percent, according to a new five-year forecast from Dell’Oro Group.
The report defines Distributed Cloud Networking as the platforms and services that provide consistent connectivity, policy enforcement and telemetry from users across wide area networks to distributed cloud and application edges spanning branch sites, data centres and public clouds. The category is gaining prominence as hybrid IT architectures and AI-driven traffic patterns increase the operational cost of fragmented control planes.
Dell’Oro Group senior director for enterprise security and networking Mauricio Sanchez said enterprises are moving away from isolated infrastructure upgrades and are instead prioritising architectures that reduce operational complexity across networking, security and observability. He said DCN’s distinguishing feature is its ability to link user-to-application experience with policy enforcement and visibility, shifting WAN decision-making toward application-aware controls rather than transport alone.
The report highlights the cloud and application edge as the fastest-growing component of the DCN market. As organisations push application-aware steering, consistent policy and unified telemetry closer to workloads across public cloud, private data centre and edge environments, demand is increasing for platforms that simplify policy placement, accelerate troubleshooting and reduce operational handoffs between networking and security teams.
The WAN middle mile remains a foundational element, with performance outcomes increasingly dependent on predictable transport, resiliency and end-to-end service assurance. Enterprises and service providers continue to prioritise backbone reach, cloud adjacency and operational accountability, particularly as critical applications traverse multiple networks and cloud on-ramps.
At the user and WAN edge, secure access, SD-WAN and policy enforcement are continuing to converge. Buyers are seeking portable, consistent user-to-application controls that extend across branch locations, remote users and cloud resources, with tighter integration across the user edge, middle mile and application edge to maintain coherent policy intent and experience telemetry.
According to Dell’Oro Group, the growth of Distributed Cloud Networking reflects a broader shift toward unified, application-centric architectures designed to support hybrid environments, AI workloads and increasingly complex enterprise connectivity requirements.
