The Ethernet controller and adapter market reached an all-time high of $935 million in 4Q 2021, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group. It is anticipated that Smart NICs will help propel the market to 19 percent revenue growth in 2022.
“The Ethernet controller and adapter market maintained strong momentum for the third consecutive quarter of record revenue,” said Baron Fung, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Revenue growth was attributed to the increased adoption of higher-speed and Smart NIC ports, as server vendors and cloud service providers gear up to transition to next-generation networks and server platforms. Despite the market reaching new heights, vendors continue to be challenged by on-going supply constraints which limited shipments,” added Fung.
Additional highlights from the 4Q 2021 Ethernet Adapter and Smart NIC report include:
- Total Ethernet controller and adapter revenue grew 16 percent in 2021.
- Major cloud service providers are upgrading server connectivity to 100 and 200 Gbps port speeds in conjunction with network upgrades.
- Smart NICs open vendors such as Marvell, Napatech, and Nvidia accounted for 23 percent of the revenue in 2021 and gained share over internally developed solutions by the major cloud service providers such as Amazon and Microsoft.