Driven by strong demand in North America and China, Ethernet switch revenue jumped 5 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2015, surpassing what IHS Research said was $6 billion in quarterly revenue for "the first time ever" and reaching $22.6 billion for the entire year.
Another contributor to Ethernet switch revenue growth was the increased adoption of 100G and 40GE ports. The research firm noted that 100G ports quadrupled sequentially in Q4 2015, propelled by new QSFP28-based 100G solutions that will eventually temper demand for 40GE products. Likewise, 40GE port shipments more than doubled in 2015, surpassing the 4 million mark.
The two best-performing segments in the Ethernet switch market were Web-managed and fully managed fixed switches as buyers look for advanced capabilities to accommodate increasing demands on their networks. From a vendor perspective, Cisco and HPE took the top two spots for Ethernet switch revenue in 2015, while Huawei jumped to number three and Juniper and Arista battled it out for the number-four spot. Release