According to the most recent Data Center Switch Report from Crehan Research, in Q2 of 2013 the data center Ethernet switch market posted record revenue and shipment results. The research finds that 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) price declines drove exceptionally strong growth in the segment, propelling the data center market's overall growth.
According to the report, 10-GbE pricing within the fixed/top-of-rack switch segment -- which accounts for a majority of overall data center switch shipments -- is now almost at three times that of 1-GbE.
Related: 'Exponential growth' in 10GBase-T switch ports forecasted
"Offering ten times the bandwidth for only three times the price of 1-GbE is a key threshold for 10-GbE data center Ethernet switch adoption," notes Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research. "This type of pricing should finally drive mainstream 10-GbE data center switch adoption."
Last month, Crehan reported that 10-GbE adoption within servers also returned to strong growth in the second quarter of 2013, with shipments and revenues posting double-digit increases.
In line with a strong quarter for data center networking investment, Fibre Channel Switching also enjoyed a sequential increase, albeit much more modest than that of the data center Ethernet switch market, finds the new report. Notably, Cisco had a particularly strong quarter, with its recently introduced flagship MDS 9700 Director switch driving close to a 40% increase in its overall Fibre Channel switch revenues.
More: Analyst: Ethernet switch market undergoing dramatic changes