Ethernet switch sales rose 5 percent year-over-year (YoY) to reach a record-high $21.7 billion in 2014, driven by the need “to accommodate the increasing demands applications place on network infrastructure,” IHS-Infonetics highlights in a new market research report.
Global Ethernet switch revenues totaled $5.9 billion in 4Q 2014, a sequential quarterly increase of 5 percent, IHS-Infonetics highlights in its 4Q and year-end 2014 Ethernet Switches market report. Growing demand for Web-managed and fully-managed switches drove the gains.
Ethernet Switch Revenues
“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,” Infonetics’ Directing Analyst for enterprise networks and video Matthias Machowinski elaborated. “As a result, 40GE is the key growth segment right now, but we expect this to last only another one to two years, after which 25GE and 100GE technology takes over.”
Other key takeaways from the report include:
- 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.
Image courtesy of flickr user DeclanTM.
