Datacentre equipment market takes Q1 hit

Citrix gains on F5 in slower overall global market

Figures from US-based Infonetics Research suggest that fewer datacentres may soon be being built or upgraded around the world.

Its Q1 2013 Datacentre Network Equipment report, which tracks Ethernet switches, application delivery controllers (ADCs) and WAN optimisation appliances has found a slowdown may soon emerge in this market worldwide.

Q1 overall figures slid 11 per cent to $2.3bn (£1.5bn).

Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics, said in a press statement: "Following two strong years of investment, growth in the datacentre equipment market is starting to slow."

Machowinski went on to explain that, while the near term outlook remains positive, ultimately the market is peaking.

Datacentre operators are improving their utilisation of infrastructure, and cloud adoption is moving hardware consumption from enterprises to large-scale datacentre operators, he said.

One bright spot was purpose-built centre switches, which grew 30 per cent on the year-ago quarter.

"Thanks to its partnership with Cisco, which exited the application delivery controller (ADC) market last year, Citrix is gaining momentum in that space, growing market share by almost 10 points in the past year and gaining on number-one F5," Machowinski indicated.

WAN optimisation revenue is also declining, due to feature integration and market saturation, Infonetics revealed.