8 Enterprise Startups Creating A Brand-New, $4 Billion Market

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Big SwitchKyle Forster, cofounder, Big SwitchA new enterprise technology called software-defined networking is still in its infancy. But it's already created some billion-dollar success stories, capturing the imagination of Silicon Valley's savviest investors and inventors.

Consider the $1.26 billion acquisition of Nicira by VMware last summer.

Or the $176 million acquisition of Contrail Systems by Juniper Networks last month, a mere two days after Contrail came out of stealth.

Software-defined networking, or SDN, changes the way companies build their IT networks. Instead of buying expensive routers and switches with a lot of fancy features from the likes of Cisco, companies can buy simpler, cheaper hardware, and less of it, and those fancy features are handled by a new layer of software.

SDN will continue to be a hot area for startups for years. The market is projected to grow from $360 million in 2013 to $3.7 billion by 2016, according to market researcher IDC.

This has led to a whole crop of startups ready to take on market leader Cisco and cash in.