Data center network equipment revenue up 10% to $12.9 bn in 2016

Data Center Switching market 2016Cliff Grossner, senior research director and advisor, cloud and data center research practice at IHS Markit, cloud service provider (CSP) and telecoms segments will squeeze the enterprise in data center switching revenue and transmission capacity by 2021.

Software-defined enterprise wide area network (SD-WAN) revenue is anticipated to reach $2.9 billion by 2021.

Data center network equipment revenue — including data center Ethernet switches, application delivery controllers (ADCs), SD-WAN and WAN optimization appliances (WOA) – grew 4 percent to $3.5 billion in Q4 2016 from Q3 2016.

Data center network equipment revenue grew 10 percent to $12.9 billion in 2016. Revenue was up in all regions except the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA).

Data center Ethernet switch revenue rose 8 percent in Q4 2016 from the year-ago quarter.

SD-WAN revenue was $31 million in Q4 2016 and hit $87 million in 2016.

Bare metal switch revenue was up 27 percent year over year in Q4 2016.

ADC revenue was down 3 percent sequentially in 4Q 2016 and down 8 percent year over year.

WAN optimization appliance revenue declined 9 percent in Q4 2016 and fell 20 percent from a year ago.

Growth in the data center network equipment market is expected to slow to 2018 and then increase out to 2021 as SD-WAN reaches $2.9 billion.

The CSP and telco segments are expected to squeeze out the enterprise in data center switching by 2021 as Ethernet capacity measured in 1GE port equivalents shipped to CSPs reaches 44 percent of total capacity (up from 25 percent in 2016), to telecoms reaches 22 percent (up from 19 percent) and to the enterprise drops to 34 percent.

Barefoot Networks’ Tofino is now available in switches from Taiwan-based Edgecore Networks and WNC.

Cavium’s Xpliant-based Wedge 100C switch design contributed to the Open Computer Project (OCP) targeting CSP and telecoms network virtual function (NVF) markets.

Cumulus Networks announced the availability of its operating system for Backpack, Facebook’s white box bare metal chassis, and is partnering with Celestica to make Backpack available for preorder with Cumulus Linux.

Huawei is challenging Arista for the number-two spot in data center Ethernet switching.