Cisco, competitors see healthy data center switching market

Almost 10% CAGR to 2017, when it will reach $16B, according to Crehan Research

Cisco and its data center switching rivals should see some healthy growth over the next four or fives years. The data center switch market will approach $16 billion by 2017, a compounded annual growth rate of almost 10% over the $10 billion it achieved in 2012, according to Crehan Research.

Much of the growth will be driven by 10GBASE-T switches and 40G Ethernet switches, the firm notes. And that switch growth will in turn be driven by the increase in 10GBASE-T server adapter and LAN-on-Motherboard shipments that ramped in 2012.

[INCENTIVE: Intel's 10G 'Romley' server to spur Ethernet switch growth]

According to Crehan, 10GBASE-T port shipments in Q2 of 2012 exceeded all cumulative 10GBASE-T shipments up to that point. 10G Ethernet server adapter and LAN-on-Motherboard ports grew almost 20% from Q1 and over 50% from the second quarter of 2011.

This will drive an upgrade to 10G Ethernet switches in the server access layer, which should then drive 40G deployments in the uplink, aggregation and core sectors of data center networks, the firm posits. Another factor driving 40G deployment is 40G's QSFP interface. QSFP can also be used as four individual 10G links for high 10G switch port density and flexibility in uplink/downlink and oversubscription applications, Crehan notes.

And 100G Ethernet? Crehan predicts "robust" increases for 100G Ethernet switches

• Ethernet Switch

• Data Center

• 100G Ethernet

• 10G ethernet

• 10GBaseT

• 40GigE

• FibreChannel

• servers