Ethernet switch market grew 11.8% YoY in 4Q21

The worldwide Ethernet switch market grew 11.8% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2021 (4Q21) with revenues reaching $8.5 billion. For the full year 2021, the market recorded $30.7 billion in revenues for a year-over-year growth rate of 9.7%. Meanwhile, the total worldwide enterprise and service provider (SP) router market recorded $4.6 billion in revenues in 4Q21, a 7.0% increase year over year. For the full year 2021, the router market finished with revenues of $15.9 billion, a 6.5% increase compared to 2020. These results were published today in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Quarterly Router Tracker.

Ethernet switch market highlights
From a geographic perspective, the Ethernet switch market experienced growth in most regions in both the fourth quarter and full year 2021. In the United States, Ethernet switch market revenues rose 12.2% year over year in 4Q21 and increased 7.0% for the full year. The market in Latin America grew 3.4% year over year in the quarter and rose 7.7% for the full year. And Canada’s market grew 7.0% in 4Q21 but was down 1.0% for the full year.

In Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan and China), the market rose 24.9% year over year in 4Q21 and grew 15.0% annually in 2021. The market in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) grew 21.1% in the quarter and rose 17.5% for the full year. Japan’s market declined 14.3% in the quarter and fell 0.8% for the full year.

In Western Europe, Ethernet switch market revenues grew 14.7% year over year in 4Q21 and were up 17.7% for the full year. In Central and Eastern Europe, growth was more modest at 3.7% in the quarter and 0.3% for the full year. In the Middle East and Africa, the Ethernet switch market declined 9.9% in the quarter and fell 5.4% for the full year.

“Organizations of all sizes around the globe are prioritizing connectivity as a critical component of their digital infrastructure strategies, and that’s why we’re seeing solid growth in the Ethernet switch market,” said Brad Casemore, research vice president, Datacenter and Multicloud Networks. “The Ethernet switch market faces challenges in 2022, most notably from component shortages impacting supply chains, but also from the economic uncertainty associated with geopolitical conflict. These headwinds will be counterbalanced by the continued buildout of high-speed datacenter network capacity at hyperscalers and other major cloud providers in the quarters ahead.”

Overall port shipments increased 13.0% in 4Q21 and rose 16.2% on an annualized basis in 2021 with growth in both the non-datacenter and datacenter portions of the Ethernet switch market. Non-datacenter Ethernet switch revenues grew 12.1% year over year in 4Q21 with port shipments increasing 14.6%. For the full year, revenues rose 10.5% in non-datacenter switching and port shipments rose 18.5%. The non-datacenter Ethernet switch portion of the market made up 88.3% of port shipments and 57.3% of total market revenues in 4Q21 with the balance of revenues and port shipments in the datacenter portion of the market. In the datacenter segment, market revenues rose 11.5% in the quarter and increased 8.5% for the full year, while port shipments grew 1.7% for the quarter and 2.0% on the year.

The higher-speed segments of the Ethernet switch market continue to see significant growth driven by hyperscalers and cloud providers. Market revenues for 200/400 GbE switches grew 40.4% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2021, with port shipments increasing 22.9% on a sequential basis. 100GbE revenues increased 17.2% year over year in 4Q21, while port shipments rose 17.3%. 100GbE accounts for just under a quarter (24.7%) of the market’s total revenues. 25/50 GbE revenues increased 21.8% year over year in 4Q21 while port shipments rose 2.6%.

Lower-speed switches, a more mature part of the market, saw mixed results. 1 GbE revenues increased 6.2% year over year in 4Q21 and port shipments rose 12.8%; 1GbE switches make up a third (33.4%) of the total market’s revenues. 10 GbE, which make up 22.4% of the total market’s revenues, declined 5.5% in the quarter, while port shipments grew slightly at 0.9% year over year. 2.5/5GbE switch revenues increased 23.5% sequentially from 3Q21 to 4Q21, while port shipments rose 21.6% quarter over quarter.

Router market highlights
The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market saw revenues grow 7.0% year over year in 4Q21. The service provider segment, which includes both communications SPs and cloud SPs, accounted for 77.4% of revenues, increasing 10.1% year over year. The enterprise segment declined 2.6% in 4Q21. For the full year, service provider router revenues increased 7.9% while the enterprise segment saw router revenues grow 2.0%.

From a regional perspective, the combined service provider and enterprise router market in 4Q21 increased 19.4% in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan & China). Japan’s market declined 11.1% while the People’s Republic of China market was up 5.5% year over year. Revenues in Western Europe increased 3.1% year over year, while the combined enterprise and service provider market in Central and Eastern Europe declined 16.0% annually and the Middle East & Africa region declined 11.8%. In the U.S., the enterprise segment saw revenues decline 18.5%, while service provider revenues increased 37.8%, giving the combined markets a 22.9% increase on an annualized basis. The Latin American market grew 4.8% on an annualized basis and Canada’s market increased 6.1% year over year in 4Q21.

Company highlights
Cisco’s Ethernet switch revenue rose 7.5% year over year in 4Q21, and increased 3.4% for the full year in 2021, giving the company market share of 45.3% to finish 2021. Meanwhile, Cisco’s combined service provider and enterprise router revenue grew 17.9% in the quarter and rose 12.0% for the full year. Cisco’s combined SP and enterprise router market share stood at 34.6% to end the year.

Huawei’s Ethernet switch revenue increased 14.4% in 4Q21 and grew 8.3% for the full year, giving the company market share of 10.2% for the full year 2021. The company’s combined SP and enterprise router revenue increased 0.5% year over year and declined 1.2% for the full year, giving the company a market share of 30.5%.

Arista Networks saw Ethernet switch revenue increase 28.2% in 4Q21 and 27.7% for the full year, giving the company 7.6% market share in 2021.

H3C’s Ethernet switch revenue increased 21.1% in 4Q21 and rose 17.9% for the full year, giving the company market share of 6.1% to end 2021. In the combined service provider and enterprise routing market, H3C’s revenue rose 22.8% in the quarter and 33.7% for the full year, giving the company 2.2% market share for 2021.

HPE’s Ethernet switch revenue declined 0.6% in the quarter, but grew 16.7% for the full year, giving the company market share of 6.1% in 2021.

“The Ethernet switch market’s growth in the final quarter of 2021 led to a strong growth rate for the full year, with generally positive results across the globe,” noted Petr Jirovsky, research director, IDC Networking Trackers. “Varying factors continue to drive the Ethernet switch market, including adoption of 400 GbE in the datacenter segment and continued growth of multi-gigabit Ethernet switches in the campus and branch segment of the market.”

The IDC Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and the IDC Quarterly Router Tracker provide total market size and vendor shares for the Ethernet switch and router technologies in an easy-to-use Excel pivot table format. The geographic coverage for both the Ethernet switch market and the router market includes nine major regions (USA, Canada, Latin America, People’s Republic of China, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan & China), Japan, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and Middle East and Africa) and 60 countries. The Ethernet switch market is further segmented by speed (100Mb, 1000Mb, 2.5Gb/5Gb, 10Gb, 25Gb/50Gb, 40Gb, 100Gb, 200Gb/400Gb), product (fixed managed, fixed unmanaged, modular), and layer (Ethernet switch, ADC). Measurement for the Ethernet switch market is provided in vendor revenue, value, and port shipments. The router market is further split by product (high-end, mid-range, low-end, SOHO), deployment (service provider, enterprise), connectivity (core, edge), and the measurements are in vendor revenue, value, and unit shipments.

CT Bureau