Global spending on telco network cloud infrastructure and software is projected to grow from $17.4 billion in 2025 to $24.8 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3%, according to Omdia’s new Telco Network Cloud Market Tracker – 2025 Annual Forecast Report.
The report highlights a significant acceleration in cloud adoption among communications service providers (CSPs), with 12% growth expected in 2025, doubling the rate seen in 2024. This momentum is fueled by the increasing maturity of cloud-native tooling, automation frameworks, and the integration of AI and GenAI into network operations.
Key Telco Cloud Market Trends:
AI Infrastructure: Over 62% of operators now consider AI/ML support critical to cloud infrastructure decisions. Vendors like NVIDIA, Red Hat, and VMware are enabling on-premises AI capabilities tailored for telco environments.
Cloud-Native Growth: Spending on Kubernetes-based platforms is forecast to grow at a 25% CAGR, while spending on existing VM-only environments is slowing down.
Public Cloud Adoption: Public cloud usage for network workloads is expected to rise from 3% in 2024 to 13% by 2030, with hyperscalers offering telco-specific solutions.
Vendor Leadership: Red Hat leads the cloud infrastructure management market with a 25% share, positioning itself as the top vendor in telco cloud platforms.
Cloud-native transformation is tightly aligned with telecom operator’s automation goals. Technology vendors addressing this market segment should embrace CI/CD pipelines and GitOps practices to automate the full lifecycle of clusters and network workloads.
Inderpreet Kaur, Senior Analyst at Omdia
Telcos are rapidly modernizing their infrastructure to support cloud-native network functions and AI-driven automation. The migration to containerized network functions (CNFs) is encouraging telcos to focus their investments on platforms that support both virtualized and containerized network functions (VNFs and CNFs).
