IHS Markit predicted that the global network functions virtualisation (NFV) market, which includes NFV hardware, software and services, would be worth $15.5 billion (€14 billion) by 2020. The research company said the service provider NFV market would increase by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42 per cent from $2.7 billion in 2015. NFV represents the shift in the telecom industry from a hardware focus to a software focus, with operators making much larger investments in software than in server, storage and switch hardware. NFV software will comprise 80 per cent of the $15.5 billion total in 2020, or around $4 out of every $5 spent on NFV, IHS Markit added. Report