Ethernet data center switch sales in traditional front-end networks, primarily supporting general-purpose servers, are expected to rebound in 2025 after a brief pause in 2024, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group. Sales growth is projected to continue at a high-single to low-double-digit rate in the following years.
“Despite challenges in 2024, we expect Ethernet data center switch sales to resume in 2025 and beyond, propelled by several factors,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “The need for additional front-end network capacity to support back-end deployments—especially for greenfield projects—will spur high-speed (>100 Gbps) connectivity, commanding a price premium. Additionally, inferencing applications that operate in front-end networks, whether at centralized locations or edge sites, will further drive sales growth.
“With a strong growth expected in front-end networks and an exceptional performance in back-end networks tracked in our ‘AI Network for AI Workload’ report, Ethernet data center switch sales could surpass $180 billion over the next five years (2025-2029). It will be fascinating to see which vendors—Accton, Arista, Celestica, Cisco, Juniper, Huawei, NVIDIA, and others—emerge as the primary beneficiaries of this growth,” added Boujelbene.
Additional highlights from the Ethernet Switch—Data Center 5-Year January 2025 Forecast Report:
- Despite some delays, more than 100 million 800 Gbps and 1600 Gbps switch ports will be deployed in front-end networks over the next five years, leveraging 51.2 Tbps and 102.4 Tbps chips that will be available on the market. Shipments in back-end networks, which are covered in a separate report, are expected to be at least double that.
- SONiC adoption is expected to accelerate, achieving a 10-20 percent penetration rate in Tier 2/3 Cloud SPs and large enterprises by 2028.
- Alternative optical form factors to conventional fully retimed pluggable optics, such as Linear Drive Pluggable Optics (LPO) and Linear Receive Optics (LRO), will gain traction over our forecast period.