The market for 40GbE and 100GbE data center switching equipment will grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 100% over the next five years, with these two technologies comprising the majority of data switching revenues by 2017, according to a new report from Crehan Research.
The report predicts that 40GbE adoption will initially exceed that of 100GbE, due to factors such as more attractive pricing, broader product offerings, higher port densities and fewer
competing port-interface types. However, 100GbE will have a significant impact in the outer forecast years.
The report also forecasts strong growth for Fibre Channel-over-Ethernet (FCoE) switches as well, an area that has also seen a number of new product introductions and announcements recently, focused on a converged LAN and SAN data-center networking infrastructure.
“Recently-launched data center switches, such as Arista’s 7500E, Brocade’s VDX 8770, Cisco’s Nexus 6004, HP Networking’s FlexFabric 12900 and 11900, Huawei’s CloudEngine 12800, Juniper’s EX9200, and Mellanox’s Virtual Modular Switch, in conjunction with upcoming introductions from new and existing vendors, should drive strong 40GbE and 100GbE revenue growth,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research. “Many of these switches are not only 40GbE and 100GbE capable, but also incorporate features enabling more openness, programmability and automation to help customers build software defined data-center network fabrics,” Crehan added.
