The adoption of 25GbE gigabit Ethernet (GbE) is off to a much stronger start than either 10GbE or 40GbE, according to a new Server-Class Adapter & LAN on-Motherboard (LOM) Report from Crehan Research Inc.
In fact, 25GbE shipments have handily surpassed two hundred thousand ports in just a little over a year, a milestone that took 10GbE about six years to reach and 40GbE about four – see accompanying figure. Moreover, each of these successive Ethernet networking technologies has ramped faster than its predecessor in response to changing data center networking traffic demands.
“The ramp of 25GbE shipments is off to a stellar start, driven by compelling pricing and rapid, broad ecosystem alignment, as well as new data center application bandwidth requirements,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research. “Looking at the broader high-speed networking adoption arcs, we are seeing an acceleration in adoption as customers move to stay ahead of numerous network traffic demands including big data and related analytics, a rapidly growing and changing mobile internet, Network Function Virtualization (NFV), machine learning, and augmented and virtual reality.”
Crehan’s report also notes that in conjunction with the stellar performance of 25GbE, both 50GbE and 100GbE are also seeing rapid growth, with each already exceeding an annualized shipment run-rate of over one hundred thousand ports. “The simultaneous strong initial ramp in three new higher-speed Ethernet networking technologies suggests that we may be at an inflection point in data center networking bandwidth demand,” Crehan said. “Furthermore, it reflects additional segmentation of the Ethernet market as this market shifts away from the one-size-fits-all deployment model that used to dominate.”
