The worldwide Ethernet switch market experienced 28.1% year-over-year growth for the full year 2010, while the worldwide router market performed nearly as well with 17.8% year-over-year growth in 2010, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Networks Tracker.
The results reflect a continued recovery and good performance across all regions and key product segments, the research firm said.
"The fourth quarter was a moderately good quarter as a follow on to three quarters of better than 30% growth in the Ethernet switch market," said Rohit Mehra, director, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure at IDC. "Growing 13.4% year over year, but staying relatively flat over the previous quarter, the Ethernet switch market had revenues of US$5.35 billion in the fourth quarter (4Q10) and $21.1 billion for the full year 2010.
The worldwide router market also showed moderate strength in 4Q10, growing 13.9% over the previous quarter, and 22% year over year. The service provider segment, which accounted for 75.2% of the market in 4Q10, grew 18.4% over 3Q10, outperforming the enterprise router segment.
"The continued market recovery over 2010 is very encouraging for the enterprise networking market with most market segments making a contribution," said Cindy Borovick, vice president, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure and Datacenter Networks at IDC.
"The Enterprise Networks Tracker shows that 10GbE switch revenue increased a moderate 4.2% over 3Q10 and a strong 57.3% year over year in the fourth quarter. More than 1.1 million ports shipped in 4Q10 as 10GbE adoption in datacenters and campus deployments continues to accelerate."