Market research firm Infonetics Research (http://twitter.com/infonetics) released its third quarter of 2010 (3Q10) Data Center Network Equipment market share and forecast report. ANALYST NOTE

“A new round of data center upgrades is underway, driven by virtualization, surging amounts of data, the growing need for storage, under-investment in 2009, and renewed life in the financial sector. Even with a relatively flat third quarter and an expected down fourth quarter, the market for data center network equipment is poised to grow 67 percent in 2010 over 2009 to hit a milestone $7.6 billion worldwide,” predicts Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.

DATA CENTER NETWORK EQUIPMENT MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

• Worldwide revenue from data center network equipment, including data center Ethernet switches, application delivery controllers (ADCs), and WAN optimization appliances, grew 2 percent in 3Q10 over 2Q10 to $1.9 billion
• Growth was led by activity in North America and EMEA
• 10G accounts for 14 percent of data center switch ports in 3Q10, much higher than in the total Ethernet switch market
• Infonetics Research predicts 10G port penetration to reach about 50 percent by 2014, aided by rapidly falling prices
• The ADC segment is getting a big boost from telecom carriers, a healthy-again financial sector, and the general trend of data center upgrades
• F5 continued to build its lead in ADC revenue share in 3Q10, and Citrix revenue jumped 25 percent, surpassing Cisco for the first time
• Riverbed’s WAN optimization appliance revenue surged 22 percent in 3Q10 and is now enjoying a double-digit lead over their nearest competitors

REPORT SYNOPSIS

Infonetics’ Data Center Network Equipment report is updated quarterly and provides worldwide and regional market size, market share, forecasts, and in-depth analysis for data center Ethernet switches (general purpose, purpose-built, and blade switches), application delivery controllers (ADCs), and WAN optimization appliances. Companies tracked include ADTRAN, Alcatel-Lucent, Arista, Avaya, Blade, Blue Coat, Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Enterasys, Expand, Extreme, F5, Force10, H3C, HP, Huawei, Ipanema, Juniper, NETGEAR, Radware, Riverbed, Silver Peak, and others.