Driven in part by Cisco's Catalyst 9000 switches, the worldwide campus switch market grew 3% last year, but dipped significantly in the second half, according to a Dell'Oro Group report. Most of that second half softness was driven by North America and Europe, but campus switch revenue in China grew at a double-digit rate in the second half of 2019, according to the report.
Launched in 2017, the Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches have been one of the fastest growing products in Cisco's history. In its second quarter earnings report in February, Cisco reported that revenues in its campus switching were down slightly. Cisco's Catalyst 9600 campus core switches are purpose-built for cloud scale networking.
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"The Cisco's Catalyst 9K refresh cycle, combined with an accelerated adoption of the higher priced NBase-T switches, boosted campus switch revenue growth in the first half of 2019," said Dell'Oro Group Senior Director Sameh Boujelbene, in a statement. "However, macroeconomic uncertainty, together with a moderation in the Catalyst 9K ramp, put downward pressure on the market that has started in 3Q 2019 and persisted through the end of the year.
"In the meantime, we were really surprised by the robust growth in China despite macro headwinds in the region. Part of this growth was reflective of ongoing government projects as well as inventory buildup at some distribution channels."
Cisco, H3C and Huawei were the only vendors among the top five that recorded year-over-year revenue growth in 2019. NBase-T port shipments more than doubled in 2019, mostly driven by Cisco.