Infonetics Research has released the fourth quarter (4Q09) edition of its new Storage Network Equipment market forecast report. The SAN equipment market is poised for strong growth, fueled by Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), according to the firm.
"Despite a setback in 2009 spending, the storage area network (SAN) switch and adapter market will grow again, pushed by the growing crush of data and video content residing on storage and servers in data centers. The consolidation and increasing size of data centers requires the simplification and scalability offered by SANs. The introduction of 16G Fiber Channel in 2010/11 will drive the Fiber Channel segment for years, but it's the Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) segment that will see the majority of the growth, fueled by the consolidation of LAN and SAN onto single Ethernet networks," notes Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst for carrier and data center networks at Infonetics Research.
Highlights of the report include the following:
-- The combined SAN switch and adapter market is forecast by Infonetics to grow from $2.4 billion in 2009 to $5.9 billion in 2014.
-- SAN adapters and Fiber Channel and Fiber Channel over Ethernet SAN switches all saw a healthy bump up in revenue in 4Q09.
-- In 2009, Brocade retained its perennial #1 SAN switch market share position, even as #2 Cisco gained share.
-- QLogic continues to lead the SAN adapter market, followed by Emulex.
-- Almost half of the world's SAN switch and adapter revenue is generated by North American vendors.
Infonetics' Storage Network Equipment report provides worldwide and regional market size, market share, forecasts through 2014, and analysis for Fiber Channel (FC) and Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) SAN switches, and 3 segments of storage networking adapters: Fiber Channel host bus adapters (FC HBAs), iSCSI HBAs, and Fiber Channel over Ethernet converged network adapters (FCoE CNAs). Switches are tracked by chassis (director) vs. fixed (fabric), and all ports are tracked by type.
The report tracks Arista, ATTO, BLADE, Brocade, Chelsio, Cisco, Emulex, Intel, LSI, Mellanox, Myricom, Neterion, QLogic, Voltaire, and others.
Lead Analyst: Michael Howard Principal Analyst, Carrier and Data Center Networks Infonetics Research +1 408-583-3351 Email Contact http://twitter.com/MichaelVHoward
SOURCE: Infonetics Research
