Continued investments to accommodate the increasing demands applications place on network infrastructure drove global Ethernet switch sales to $21.7 billion in 2014, up 5 percent from 2013, according to market research firm Infonetics Research, now part of IHS.
Infonetics? fourth quarter 2014 (4Q14) and year-end Ethernet Switches market share, size and forecast report tracks unmanaged, Web-managed and fully-managed fixed and chassis switches by port speed (100ME, 1GE, 10GE, 40GE, 100GE).
?2014 was another solid year for Ethernet switches. The one weakness was 10GE, where revenue growth has essentially stalled as large data center operators migrate to 40GE and mainstream enterprises have yet to widely adopt 10GE,? said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.
“As a result, 40GE is the key growth segment right now, but we only expect this to last for another one to two years, after which 25GE and 100GE technology takes over.”
Ethernet switch market highlights
? In 4Q14, global Ethernet switch revenue totaled $5.9 billion, a 5 percent sequential increase driven by Web-managed and fully-managed switches
? China drove growth in the Ethernet switch market in 2014, where revenue is up a strong 17 percent from 2013
? While 10GE switch revenue is slowing, port shipments grew 27 percent in 2014, driven by data center upgrades, server virtualization and core network buildouts
? 40GE port shipments almost tripled in 2014, and revenue easily doubled
? 100GE ports grew more than six-fold in 2014, and the arrival of 100GE on fixed switches and the introduction of low-cost optics will drive 100GE in 2015 and beyond
? ?White box? switches ? switches built by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) and sold directly to end-users ? are seeing success with large web services and content providers like Google and Amazon
? Heavyweight Cisco continued its recovery, growing Ethernet switch sales 1 percent sequentially in 4Q14 and clinging to small year-over-year growth
? Huawei?s 2014 Ethernet switch revenue is up 72 percent versus 2013, as it built out its channel, increased brand awareness and expanded into Europe