Twenty-five gigabit Ethernet will make up 9% of all adapter ports shipped worldwide in 2019, according to IHS Infonetics. This forecast was offered after the firm found that 2,500 25G ports will ship in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Proponents of 25G say it will provide a better migration path to 100G from 10G server connections because the signaling and single-lane technology for 25G was developed during the 100G Ethernet process, which is four lanes of 25G. The reuse of serial lane 25G signaling will also enable cost optimized deployments in newly constructed data centers, especially for server interconnects that support 10G Ethernet and beyond, according to the IEEE.
Some analysts believe 25G could be the second highest Ethernet server connectivity technology sold and shipped in the next five years, behind 10G.
Vendors like Cisco and Dell have just started announcing 25G-capable switches based on Broadcom's Tomahawk chipset.
Meanwhile, the Fibre Channel SAN market is seeing some softness due to weaker demand for flash drives, IHS Infonetics reports. Global Fibre Channel SAN revenue - including Fibre Channel switches and host bus adapters - is down 11% sequentially in the first quarter of 2015, and up 1% from the first quarter of 2014, to $595 million.
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