10G in data centers driving Ethernet switch market

The Ethernet switch market grew for the second consecutive quarter during the third quarter of this year, driven by continued strength in data center deployments, according to Dell’Oro Group.

The ramp up is due largely to 10 Gigabit Ethernet for server connectivity and aggregation applications within the data center, Dell'Oro states. In the short term, most of the overall Ethernet switch market revenue growth will come from the data center, the firm states.

10G Ethernet shakes net design to the core

Total 10 Gigabit Ethernet revenues grew 10% to $737 million during the quarter, with most of the growth being driven by “purpose-built” 10 Gigabit Ethernet data center switches, Dell'Oro notes. Cisco and HP lead in this segment with a combined revenue share of almost 78%.

They were followed by Brocade, Blade Network Technologies, 3Com/H3C and Nortel.

The total 10G Ethernet switch market is expected to reach $2.8 billion from $2.5 billion a year ago, a growth rate of 12%.

The total Ethernet switch market was just less than $4 billion in the third quarter, down $1 billion, or 20%, from a year ago. For 2009, Dell'Oro expects the total market to be down 19% from 2008's tally of $19.3 billion.