Cisco Virtual Networking Index predicts Middle East and

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA--(Marketwired - Jun 8, 2017) - Cisco ( NASDAQ : CSCO ) -- Over the next five years (2016 - 2021), global digital transformation will continue to have a significant impact on the demands and requirements of IP networks according to today's release of the Cisco Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Complete Forecast. Top-level indicators include the projected increase in Internet users -- from 3.3 to 4.6 billion or 58 percent of the global population, greater adoption of personal devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections -- from 17.1 billion to 27.1 billion from 2016-2021, average broadband speed advances -- from 27.5 Mbps to 53.0 Mbps, and more video viewing -- from 73 percent to 82 percent of total IP traffic. Over the forecast period, global IP traffic is expected to increase three-fold reaching an annual run rate of 3.3 zettabytes by 2021, up from an annual run rate of 1.2 zettabytes in 2016.

For the first time in the 12 years of the forecast, M2M connections that support Internet of Things (IoT) applications are calculated to be more than half of the total 27.1 billion devices and connections and will account for five percent of global IP traffic by 2021. IoT innovations in connected home, connected healthcare, smart cars/transportation and a host of other next-generation M2M services are driving this incremental growth -- a 2.4-fold increase from 5.8 billion in 2016 to 13.7 billion by 2021. With the rise of connected applications such as health monitors, medicine dispensers, and first-responder connectivity, the health vertical will be the fastest-growing industry segment (30 percent CAGR). The connected car and connected cities applications will have the second-fastest growth (29 percent CAGRs respectively).

Video will continue to dominate IP traffic and overall Internet traffic growth -- representing 80 percent of all Internet traffic by 2021, up from 67 percent in 2016. Globally, there will be nearly 1.9 billion Internet video users (excluding mobile-only) by 2021, up from 1.4 billion in 2016. The world will reach three trillion Internet video minutes per month by 2021, which is five million years of video per month, or about one million video minutes every second.

Emerging mediums such as live Internet video will increase 15-fold and reach 13 percent of Internet video traffic by 2021 -- meaning more streaming of TV apps and personal live streaming on social networks. While live streaming video is reshaping today's online entertainment patterns, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are also gaining traction. By 2021, VR/AR traffic will increase 20-fold and represent one percent of global entertainment traffic.

Cisco 2017 VNI Complete Forecast Key Predictions and Major Milestones

• Top-level indicators include the projected increase in Internet users -- from 3.3 to 4.6 billion or 58 percent of the global population ¹ , greater adoption of personal devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections -- from 17.1 billion to 27.1 billion from 2016- 2021, average broadband speed advances -- from 27.5 Mbps to 53.0 Mbps, and more video viewing -- from 73 percent to 82 percent of total IP traffic.
• For the first time in the 12 years of the forecast, M2M connections that support Internet of Things (IoT) applications are calculated to be more than half of the total 27.1 billion devices and connections and will account for five percent of global IP traffic by 2021.
• Globally, there will be nearly 1.9 billion Internet video users (excluding mobile-only) by 2021, up from 1.4 billion in 2016.
• Emerging mediums such as live Internet video will increase 15-fold and reach 13 percent of Internet video traffic by 2021.
• By 2021, VR/AR traffic will increase 20-fold and represent one percent of global entertainment traffic.
• Globally, total public W-Fi hotspots (including homespots) will grow 6-fold from 2016 to 2021 from 94 million in 2016 to 541.6 million by 2021.
• SD-WAN will increase six-fold over the forecast period and represent 25 percent of WAN traffic by 2021.
• The number of DDoS attacks grew 172 percent in 2016 and will increase 2.5-fold to 3.1 million by 2021 globally.

VNI Forecast Resources

• Cisco VNI Complete Forecast homepage
• Check out the VNI Complete Forecast Update Infographic
• Read the VNI Complete Forecast white paper
• Read the Zettabyte Era Trends and Analysis white paper
• Launch the VNI Complete Forecast Highlights Tool
• Read the Cisco VNI Frequently Asked Questions document

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