The worldwide Ethernet switch market recorded USD 7.45 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2020, an increase of 1.9 percent year over year, according to research by IDC. The enterprise and service provider router market saw revenues fall 2.0 percent over the same period to USD 3.67 billion.

Growth in the Ethernet switch market was driven by hyperscalers, cloud providers and communication service providers, which are investing in new technology platforms to support increased demand, IDC said. It found strong growth in China (+14.7%), Japan (+22.0%) and Russia (24.2%), but weakness in west Europe, with sales down in the UK (-15.5%) and France (-13.2%, and the US market falling 2.0 percent. 

The highest speed switching platforms are most in demand. For example, port shipments for 100Gb switches rose 34.9 percent year over year to 7.5 million, and 100Gb revenues were up 20.6 percent to USD 1.73 billion. Lower-speed non-datacenter switches, a more mature part of the market, saw mixed results in port shipments and revenue, as average selling prices in this segment continue to decline.

A new market segment in the IDC report shows the split between data centre and non-data centre deployments. The research estimates that the non-data centre portion still accounts for a small majority of 56.8 percent of the total Ethernet switch market's revenues and 87.0 percent of port shipments. Data centre switches account for 43.2 percent of revenues, but only 13.0 percent of port shipments, underlining the premium price for higher-speed Ethernet switching equipment.

In the router market, IDC estimates enterprise sales fell 8.9 percent, while the service provider market, which accounts for over 77 percent of revenues, grew 0.3 percent. The total market grew 7.8 percent year over year in Central and Eastern Europe, 3.7 percent in Western Europe and 7.8 percent in the MEA region, while the APeJC market fell 17.4 percent, China dropped 1.5 percent, Latin America declined 20.6 percent, and the US fell 0.2 percent. 

Cisco maintains market lead despite lower sales

Cisco led both the Ethernet switch and router markets, with shares of respectively 49.9 percent and 35.5 percent of revenues. The company's revenues were down in both segments, with falls of 0.8 percent and 8.1 percent. 

Huawei achieved growth of 18.6 percent in Ethernet switch revenue, taking the company's market share to 10.4 percent. The company's combined SP and enterprise router revenue declined 1.5 percent year over year, resulting in a market share of 28.3 percent.

Arista Networks was in third place in Ethernet switch revenues, with a share of 6.4 percent after a sales decline of 13.5 percent in Q3. 100Gb revenues account for 71.7 percent of the company's total revenue. HPE came fourth with 5.1 percent of the switch market, and Juniper Networks was in fifth place with 2.7 percent.