Cisco switches top for services providers

Infonetics Research analysis reveals how carriers choose edge routers and Ethernet switches

Cisco Systems has been named the OEM whose routers and switches are preferred by telecoms services providers.

The result comes from a survey of carriers by US-based Infonetics Research, which asked services providers to name their top three edge router and carrier Ethernet switch manufacturers.

"Cisco came out on top, with 90 per cent of our respondents naming that vendor, followed by Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent, and Huawei. Three out of these four vendors earned top marks from our services providers in at least two of the top vendor selection criteria," reported Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks at Infonetics.

Howard said respondents claimed their choice was about perceptions of product reliability and value as well as service and support, and that services providers were responding to an open-ended question, rather than being narrowed down to specific OEM choices.

"We asked carriers to name the top three," he said.

Frontrunners Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Huawei, and Juniper were also the leading vendors worldwide in router and Ethernet switch revenue market share, according to Infonetics. The second tier of vendors – as rated by services providers – was Adtran, Ciena, Ericsson, Overture Networks, Tellabs, and ZTE.

"In the survey, operators also rank vendors of carrier Ethernet switches and routers based on 10 criteria: technology innovation, security, management software, price-to-performance ratio or value, product reliability, pricing, product road map, financial stability, solution breadth, and service and support," the researcher explained in its announcement.

Eighty per cent of service provider router and switch spending was on edge routers and carrier Ethernet switches, it said in the 18-page router and switch vendor leadership survey.

Infonetics interviewed network-kit buyers at 31 mobile operators and services providers from EMEA, Asia-Pacific, North America, the Caribbean and Latin America that represent a total 41 per cent share of global telecoms capex.