Worldwide Ethernet switch market revenues reached a record $6.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14), representing an increase of 3.8 percent year over year and 3.6 percent over the previous quarter.
According to the preliminary results published by International Data Corporation (IDC), for the full year 2014, the market expanded by 3.9 percent over 2013.
Meanwhile, the worldwide total router market reversed recent year-over-year declines, growing 2.5 percent year over year and 5.6 percent sequentially yet the router market contracted -0.6 percent for the full year 2014.
From a geographic perspective, the Asia/Pacific region, including Japan (APJ), was essentially flat year over year (increasing 0.7 percent), but was more in line with global results sequentially (up 4.1 percent).
“Despite precipitous price erosion, 10Gb Ethernet is the primary growth driver of the Ethernet switching market, with 40Gb Ethernet growing in stature quickly, as data centres seek greater capacity to deliver a feverishly proliferating ecosystem of enterprise and cloud applications,” says Rohit Mehra, VP Network Infrastructure, IDC.
"The 1Gb Ethernet market remains important to the enterprise campus network, although price declines will potentially challenge market growth."
According to IDC, 10Gb Ethernet switch revenue increased 5.2 percent year over year to reach $2.3 billion while 10Gb Ethernet switch port shipments grew a robust 24.4 percent year over year to reach nearly 6.8 million ports shipped in 4Q14 as average selling prices continue to fall.
Meanwhile, 40Gb Ethernet continues to rapidly grow as a stand-alone segment and now accounts for more than $520 million in revenue per quarter with year-over-year growth of more than 100 percent - 10Gb and 40Gb Ethernet continue to be the primary drivers of the overall Ethernet switch market.
Globally speaking
The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market increased 2.5 percent year over year in 4Q14.
However, performance of the key segments within the router market varied widely with the service provider segment increasing 5.4 percent year over year while the enterprise segment continued to struggle, falling 5.1 percent year over year.
