According to a recent report by the telecommunications and networking industries analyst Dell’Oro Group, the Layer 2-3 Ethernet switch market declined nearly $1 billion sequentially in the first quarter of 2014 to just over $5 billion.
“Several factors caused 1Q14 to deliver the second worst first quarter on record for the Ethernet Switch market,” explains Alan Weckel, vice president of Ethernet Switch market research at Dell’Oro Group. “Campus switching continues to struggle as many customers look towards wireless connectivity; data center switching paused as Cisco’s Nexus 9000 product transition continued; and stronger than usual seasonality all caused the market to weaken."
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Despite the market's relative weakness, the analysis indicates that 40 Gigabit Ethernet and 100 Gigabit Ethernet systems both grew in the first quarter, contributing more than five percent of the total market revenue. Of the vendors broken out in the report, Cisco Systems, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Juniper Networks all grew their 40 Gigabit Ethernet port shipments sequentially.
“Despite the steep decline, white box switching continued to gain momentum in 1Q14, outpacing the overall market," concludes Dell'Oro's Weckel. "As we look towards the rest of 2014, the market will be most impacted by two factors: Cloud providers’ continued and increasing need for networking equipment, and how China selects the vendors it will allow to sell into each part of its network."
Learn more about the report.
