“Cisco’s 16G Fibre Channel ports are finally hitting the market, and we believe its customers’ pent-up demand for Fibre Channel inter-switch connection will help push 16G revenue past 8G by the end of 2013,” predicts Michael Howard, Infonetics Research’s co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks. “Meanwhile, Brocade, which enjoyed a similar jump start when it came to market with 16G Fibre Channel in 2011, is settling in for the longer-term 16G replacement of 8G as the speed of choice.”
Cliff Grossner, directing analyst for data center and cloud at Infonetics, adds: “We’re forecasting 16G Fibre Channel switch revenue to grow at a 46% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2013 to 2017.”
Additional highlights:
- In the adapter segment, combined Fibre Channel and iSCSI revenue fell 5% in 2Q13 from the previous quarter
- Thanks to its introduction of 16G Fibre Channel, Cisco was able to buck a down quarter that plagued many of the other leading vendors in the SAN space
- In 2Q13, the worldwide high-performance interconnect equipment (HPI) market, including converged FCoE/Ethernet switches and converged network adapters, grew 26% sequentially, and is up 43% year-over-year
- Growth in the HPI market continues to reflect operators’ ongoing investments in data center infrastructure and interest in LAN/SAN convergence
- Sales of converged FCoE/Ethernet switches are up 26% in 2Q13 from 1Q13