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The global markets for Ethernet switches and routers enjoyed steady, if slow, growth in the third quarter of 2016, according to new reports from International Data Corporation (IDC).
The company's Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker revealed this sector increased by two per cent compared with the same period a year earlier, recording revenue of $6.29 billion (£5.13 billion).
During the same timeframe, IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker showed the global enterprise and service provider router sector to have generated revenue of $3.56 billion, an increase of 2.6 per cent year-on-year.
Rohit Mehra, vice-president of network infrastructure at IDC, said that maturing IT architectures and recent macroeconomic developments around the world have resulted in a range of reactions by IT decision-makers when it comes to their networking investments.
He stated: "Strong growth in the 40Gb Ethernet and 100Gb Ethernet segments specific to data centre deployments brought a degree of stabilisation to a market in transition, where the enterprise campus market for switching declined."
Other factors that are having a significant impact on core networking infrastructure investments include the emergence of software-defined networking (SDN) architectures and a drive to transform networks in order to be equipped for a more digitally-focused economy.
Petr Jirovsky, research manager for worldwide networking trackers at IDC, commented: "This, combined with the emergence of new Ethernet port speeds across the data centre and enterprise campus deployments, will likely lead to continued interest."
In the router market, IDC observed that much of the growth comes from the enterprise routing sector, which saw an 8.2 per cent increase in revenue. This compares with just a 0.8 per cent rise in the service provider segment.
The research firm noted that this market will be one to watch closely in the coming months as SDN architectures start to take hold across wide area networks (WANs). There will be significant potential for software-defined WANs to disrupt traditional approaches to routing and WAN transport markets, which IT decision-makers must be aware of.
In the Ethernet switches market, revenue for 1Gb devices declined by 4.3 per cent year-on-year, while shipments of 10Gb switch ports rose by 10.6 per cent, or 9.76 million units. Revenue growth for 40Gb and emerging 100Gb were even higher, at 20.5 per cent and 330.1 per cent respectively, indicating that these technologies are now seen as the standard for many buyers and are the prime drivers for the overall Ethernet switch market in 2016.
