Switch sales slip

LANs & Routers This newsletter is sponsored by D-Link D-Link Unified Switching Improves Network Efficiency As businesses scale, blending traditional wireless and wired networks become a challenge. D-Link's xStack 3200 series incorporate effortless wireless switching and advanced wired functionality for a TOTAL unified network solution. Discover how D-Link can help take your network to the next level. Download your copy of "Unified Wireless Switching" to learn more. Network World's LANs & Routers Newsletter, 05/29/07 Switch sales slip By Jeff Caruso The robust activity around LAN switches that we saw at the Interop trade show this week was tempered by the release of market research that showed that the Ethernet switch market has shrunk. As I mentioned last time, Foundry Networks led a charge ahead with its biggest chassis-based switch, the 5.1Tbps BigIron RX32. The network industry had a strong showing at Interop, as our editor-in-chief, John Dix, noted in an editorial. Research firm Dell'Oro Group, however, then released a report showing a "substantial decline" in revenues for chassis-based Ethernet switches in the first three months of the year. Get the latest thinking on the core issues reshaping the new data center. Download our new Executive Guide "Data Center Decisions" to sharpen your competitive edge. The comprehensive range of topics includes: Data Center Trends, User Case Studies, Heat/Power issues and key products for the data center. Click to Download Seamus Crehan, senior director of Ethernet switch research at Dell’Oro, said the decline was greater than 10%. Chassis-based switches make up about half of the market; the other half is made up of fixed-configuration or stackable switches, which remained stable. So, the overall Ethernet switch market declined about 5% to about $4 billion in the quarter, the largest sequential decrease in more than five years. North American enterprise companies spent less on network gear, and they tend to buy chassis-based switches more than other parts of the world, Crehan said. So, why are those businesses spending less? Crehan said the overall economic outlook may have something to do with it. The economy is still growing, but more slowly. Dell'Oro is forecasting the market to rebound later in the year, as it slowly recovers from this most recent quarter. Cisco led the market for chassis-based switches, as you would expect. HP ProCurve is next, followed by Nortel, Foundry and Redback Networks.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Jeff Caruso is managing editor of online news for Network World. He oversees daily online news posting and newsletter editing, and writes the NetFlash daily news summary, the High-Speed LANs newsletter and the Voices of Networking newsletter. Contact him at jcaruso@nww.com This newsletter is sponsored by D-Link D-Link Unified Switching Improves Network Efficiency As businesses scale, blending traditional wireless and wired networks become a challenge. D-Link's xStack 3200 series incorporate effortless wireless switching and advanced wired functionality for a TOTAL unified network solution. Discover how D-Link can help take your network to the next level. Download your copy of "Unified Wireless Switching" to learn more. ARCHIVE Archive of the LANs & Routers Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007