According to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group, the Layer 2-3 Ethernet Switch market is expected to exceed $25 billion in 2019.

“Data center switching will evolve rapidly through the rest of the decade and will drive most of the growth in the Ethernet Switch market," commented Alan Weckel, vice president of Ethernet Switch market research at Dell’Oro Group. "Already we see these changes causing vendors to significantly increase the number of products they offer.”

Dell'Oro's Ethernet Switch 5-Year Forecast Report also indicates that 25 Gigabit Ethernet will be a major driver for growth in data center switching, and will help propel 100 Gigabit Ethernet volumes, with enterprises adopting a different class of switch to support 25 Gigabit Ethernet, compared with switches used in the cloud.

The report also indicates software will transform how Ethernet switches are consumed by customers.

“Towards the end of the decade, we expect data center switching growth to be driven exclusively by the cloud, with the enterprise market declining slowly," continued Dell'Oro's Weckel. "The cloud will help spur the adoption of Software Defined Networking (SDN) - that is another key driver in the evolution from an enterprise-driven to a cloud-dominated Ethernet switching market."

"The cloud’s need to scale, be flexible, and differentiate are ultimately all governed by what can be achieved in software,” he concluded.

Learn more about the report.