A confluence of faster data center Ethernet switch upgrades will propel the market to $15 billion by 2020, according to Crehan Research's latest Data Center Switch Long-Range Forecast Report. The firm projects that 100 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switching will ramp strongly by the second half of this year, and that 400GbE will experience robust growth in 2018. The firm also predicts the adoption next year of dedicated 25GbE switch ports by customers who prefer not using breakout cables on 100GbE switching to connect to 25GbE server and storage ports.
"While we expect the initial ramp in 100GbE and 400GbE data center switching to be driven by the largest hyper-scale cloud service providers, we also anticipate strong interest from other segments of the market, with subsequent increased adoption," said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research.
The report further predicts that despite the upcoming growth in 25GbE, 100GbE and 400GbE, 10GbE will remain an important technology through 2020, and will likely comprise the majority of network connections in many enterprise data centers. "With so many different speeds, we are seeing more granular segmentation in the Ethernet switch market," Crehan said. "We seem to be moving away from the one-size-fits-all deployment model that once prevailed."
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