In the second quarter of 2010 the IT research firm IDC found year-over-year revenue growth of 32.7
percent in the Ethernet switching and 11.0 percent in the Ethernet
routing markets worldwide. The report, Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise
Networks Tracker, said the numbers reflecting continued strong
performance across all regions and key product segments in those
markets.
IDC’s update report found that the worldwide router market showed
moderate strength in the Q2 2010. The report found the enterprise
router market was marginally lower compared to the first quarter of the
year, but had an 8 percent year-over-year gain. This segment
continues to be soft and off by around 25 percent from the record
levels seen in 2007 and 2008, the report noted. Service provider router
revenue now accounts for nearly three-quarters of the router market and
includes both core and edge routers.
"The continued market recovery in 2010 is very encouraging with all
regions and market segments making a contribution," said IDC’s vice
president of enterprise communications infrastructure and data center
networks, Cindy Borovick. "IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Networks
Tracker shows a strong 87.9 percent year-over-year increase in 10GbE
switch revenue in 2Q10 and for the first time there were more than 1
million 10GbE ports shipped in the quarter. The 10Gb adoption was
driven by data center, cloud, and campus buildouts."
From a vendor perspective, the report found Cisco’s Ethernet switch
market share increased to 65.8 percent in Q2 2010 from 62.8 percent
compared with the same period last year, but was down from 68.3 percent
in the “exceptionally strong” first quarter of 2010. Borovick said
Cisco performed on par with the service provider router market and now
accounts for 46.1 percent of service provider router revenue—the same
as in the second quarter of 2009.
"The second quarter performance was very good, following on the
heels of exceptional first quarter results for the Ethernet switch
market," said Rohit Mehra, director of enterprise communications
infrastructure at IDC. "As seen in previous years, the second calendar
quarter builds on the performance of the first, which is what the
market delivered, showing strong year-over-year growth from the
slowdown the market witnessed in 2009. The continued adoption of PoE
(Power over Ethernet) and gigabit ethernet is also being helped by the
underlying networking drivers – the growth of voice and video over IP
applications, network-attached devices, virtualization, and cloud
computing."
The Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Networks Tracker provides global
Ethernet switch coverage, including manufacturer revenue and port
shipments by vendor, layer, speed, form factor, power over Ethernet
(PoE) capabilities, and average pricing. The router coverage shows
manufacturing revenue and unit shipments by vendor, product class,
deployment, connectivity, and average pricing. Ethernet switch and
router market results are delivered in a pivot table seven weeks after
the close of the calendar quarter.