Monday, April 10, 2023

Crehan: Doubling of data center Ethernet switch bandwidth every 2 years continued in '22

The closing of calendar-year 2022 marked yet another period in which customer deployments of data center Ethernet switch networking bandwidth continued its consistent – and remarkable – trend of doubling every two years, according to a recent report from Crehan Research Inc. 

As a result of this consistent biennial growth, the Ethernet networking bandwidth deployed by data center switch customers is now over 350 times bigger than it was in 2008. Furthermore, in conjunction with this exponential data center networking bandwidth growth, the price of that bandwidth has declined 100-fold.


“On one side, we have this constant need for higher networking bandwidth – with the latest new driver being AI – which is incremental to video, storage, mobile, big data, cloud etc., while on the other side, that demand is fulfilled by all the advancements in the switch silicon, processors and software,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research. 

“And on top of that, the vendors in the data center Ethernet switch ecosystem have consistently brought increased value to customers by dependably delivering more bandwidth at much lower prices.”

Crehan’s report also shows that annual 2022 data center Ethernet switch market shipments and revenue growth was in the teens, resulting in new record-highs for both.