AI infrastructure build-outs, also known as ‘Back-End Networks’, are causing budget cuts and project delays in general-purpose infrastructure, or ‘Front-End Networks’, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group. Despite these project delays, 800 Gbps port shipments are forecast to quadruple in 2024.
“Recent interviews with major Cloud service providers (SPs) unveiled multiple projects experiencing delays or being put on hold due to a shift in focus to AI infrastructure build-outs,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Project delays and budget cuts have led to a shift of the 800 Gbps adoption timeline by approximately a year for certain major Cloud SPs. Consequently, our forecast for sales of switches deployed in front-end networks has been revised downward compared to our July 2023 report.
“Despite project delays, 800 Gbps port shipments are expected to quadruple in 2024, driven mainly by the anticipated adoption by a major Cloud service provider, specifically Amazon; and propelled by the availability of 51.2 Tbps chips in the market. 800 Gbps will be adopted in both back-end as well as front-end networks. While our traditional data center switch report focuses on front-end networks, we delve into back-end network deployment in our recently published advanced research report ‘AI Networks for AI Workloads’,” added Boujelbene.
Additional highlights from the Ethernet Switch—Data Center 5-Year January 2024 Forecast Report:
- 1600 Gbps is expected to start shipping in 2025/2026.
- Together with 800 Gbps, these high speeds are expected to comprise nearly 40 percent of the data center switch ports by 2028. Linear Drive Optics, an alternative to Co-packaged optics, are expected to gain material traction during our forecast horizon.
- SONiC adoption is expected to accelerate, achieving a 10-20 percent penetration rate in Tier 2/3 Cloud SPs and large enterprises by 2028.
