While sales of service provider routers continue to slow, sales of carrier Ethernet switches are trending sharply up, according to a new report from Infonetics Research.
“The ‘SDN hesitation’ we first identified four quarters ago remains in effect, slowing router spending in the third quarter of 2014 as carriers remain cautious about investing in equipment and software that might need to be replaced in the future,” says Michael Howard, principal analyst for carrier networks and co-founder of Infonetics Research.
“Meanwhile carrier Ethernet switches (CES) had an unprecedented quarter, with global revenue up 32% from the previous quarter and up 14% from a year ago, driven by ZTE in China and Cisco in North America,” continues Howard. “Fundamental changes are on the horizon as the market transitions from hardware-driven to software-driven, but no doubt routers must be fitted with higher-capacity blades to accommodate growing traffic, and there is intensifying focus on content delivery networks (CDNs) and smart traffic management across routes to make routers and optical gear cooperate more closely.”
Some highlights:
- Combined, service provider routers and switches—including IP edge and core routers and carrier Ethernet switches—totaled $3.7 billion worldwide in 3Q14, down 3% from the previous quarter
- All regions except CALA (Caribbean and Latin America) were down sequentially in 3Q14
- However, the market is up 3% from the year-ago 3rd quarter, reflecting the long-term slow growth trend Infonetics has been tracking
- Infonetics expects the global carrier router and switch market to slowly grow to $17 billion by 2018, a five year (2013–2018) compound annual growth rate of just over 3%
- Looking at rolling 4-quarter router market share, Huawei increased its share the most of any vendor (+4.6 points) from 3Q12 to 3Q14, as edge and core router revenue stayed relatively flat.
http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2014/3Q14-Service-Provider-Routers-Switches-Market-Highlights.asp
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