Network switch and router market reaches all-time high - analyst

Cisco extends dominance to own over half the market, but Arista is branded the 'high-growth star'

The networking switch and router market saw its biggest ever quarterly sales in Q3, with revenue passing the $11bn (£8.6bn) mark, according to Synergy Research.

Synergy said the market has been growing at roughly one per cent annually, with Cisco continuing to dominate.

The analyst claims that the networking giant has a 53 per cent stronghold on the overall market, but it holds an even greater share in specific areas.

In the enterprise router space, for example, Cisco owns around 63 per cent of the market, Synergy said. However, its share in the service provider market is below half, at 40 per cent.

The analyst said that Huawei is now Cisco's closest challenger, while Arista is the fastest-growing in the space.

"Despite challenges from SDN, NFV and hyperscalers' own-design networking gear, the market for ethernet switches and routers is huge and continues to grow, albeit slowly," said Synergy chief analyst John Dinsdale.

"While Arista is the high-growth star and Huawei continues to consolidate its number-two ranking in the market, the biggest story is Cisco's ability to continue controlling over half of the market.

"It had a particularly strong quarter and no other vendor is seriously challenging its position."

Synergy said that over the last four quarters, the switching and router market has been worth $43bn. Switching is the largest segment, worth over 60 per cent of total sales, and also the fastest growing.