Date: 24/06/2012

Data center equipment fell to $2.2 billion in 1Q12, down by 6% from 4Q11: Infonetics

Infonetics Research has released excerpts from its 1st quarter (1Q12) Data Center Network Equipment vendor market share and forecast report.

“The data center equipment market was down sequentially, but is up nicely from the year-ago first quarter. For the remainder of 2012 and into 2013, we expect growth to be choppy as service providers and data center operators are at different stages in their data center upgrades and some are beginning to wind down their current investment cycle,” notes Sam Barnett, directing analyst for data center and cloud at Infonetics Research.

The highlights of the Data center equipment market:
1. Global revenue for data center network equipments such as data center Ethernet switches, application delivery controllers, and WAN optimization appliances fell to $2.2 billion in 1Q12, down 6% from 4Q11, but up a strong 17% year over year.
2. The steepest revenue dip felt by WAN optimization appliances, down 20% from the previous quarter
3. Cisco continues a commanding lead in the overall data center network equipment market, followed by ADC leader F5 and HP, who remain in a neck-and-neck battle for 2nd
4. Asia Pacific posted the strongest sequential gain in 1Q12 for overall data center network equipment revenue, while North America still accounts for nearly half the market
5. Renewed fears of an economic meltdown in the EU community are pressuring investments; EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) was down 10% quarter over quarter and had the worst year-over-year showing of all regions.

Infonetics’ quarterly Data Center Network Equipment report provides worldwide and regional market size, vendor market share, forecasts and analysis for data center Ethernet switches (general purpose, purpose-built, and blade switches), ADCs, and WAN optimization appliances. Companies tracked include Alcatel Lucent, Blue Coat, Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, F5, HP, IBM (BNT), Juniper, Radware, Riverbed, and others.
Author: Srinivasa Reddy N