The worldwide Ethernet switch market grew 11.8% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2021 (4Q21) with revenues reaching $8.5 billion, according to IDC's Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Quarterly Router Tracker.
Some highlights from IDC:
- For the full year 2021, the Ethernet switch market recorded $30.7 billion in revenues for a year-over-year growth rate of 9.7%.
- The total worldwide enterprise and service provider (SP) router market recorded $4.6 billion in revenues in 4Q21, a 7.0% increase year over year. For the full year 2021, the router market finished with revenues of $15.9 billion, a 6.5% increase compared to 2020.
- The higher-speed segments of the Ethernet switch market continue to see significant growth driven by hyperscalers and cloud providers. Market revenues for 200/400 GbE switches grew 40.4% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2021, with port shipments increasing 22.9% on a sequential basis. 100GbE revenues increased 17.2% year over year in 4Q21, while port shipments rose 17.3%. 100GbE accounts for just under a quarter (24.7%) of the market's total revenues. 25/50 GbE revenues increased 21.8% year over year in 4Q21 while port shipments rose 2.6%.
- From a geographic perspective, the Ethernet switch market experienced growth in most regions in both the fourth quarter and full year 2021. In the United States, Ethernet switch market revenues rose 12.2% year over year in 4Q21 and increased 7.0% for the full year. The market in Latin America grew 3.4% year over year in the quarter and rose 7.7% for the full year. And Canada's market grew 7.0% in 4Q21 but was down 1.0% for the full year.In Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan and China), the market rose 24.9% year over year in 4Q21 and grew 15.0% annually in 2021. The market in the People's Republic of China (PRC) grew 21.1% in the quarter and rose 17.5% for the full year. Japan's market declined 14.3% in the quarter and fell 0.8% for the full year.
"Organizations of all sizes around the globe are prioritizing connectivity as a critical component of their digital infrastructure strategies, and that's why we’re seeing solid growth in the Ethernet switch market," said Brad Casemore, research vice president, Datacenter and Multicloud Networks. "The Ethernet switch market faces challenges in 2022, most notably from component shortages impacting supply chains, but also from the economic uncertainty associated with geopolitical conflict. These headwinds will be counterbalanced by the continued buildout of high-speed datacenter network capacity at hyperscalers and other major cloud providers in the quarters ahead."
