A newly available storage area network (SAN) forecast report by Dell'Oro Group covering Fibre Channel switch and adapters says that through 2016, port shipments will decline while revenues increase. By 2016, the report says, Fibre Channel switch and adapter revenues will approach $3 billion at a compound annual growth rate of about 2 percent.
Casey Quillin, senior analyst with Dell'Oro Group, commented, "Although Ethernet has become an increasingly popular storage network technology, Fibre Channel is being used to backend the Ethernet system. We forecast a portion of the server aggregation layer to shift away from Fibre Channel, which will result in a decline in port shipments in the outer years. However, we expect overall prices to rise with advanced data management features and the shift to 16 Gbits/sec, resulting in positive growth throughout our forecast horizon."
The report discusses SAN technologies other than Fibre Channel, including Fibre Channel over Ethernet. You can find more information about the report here.
