Worldwide Ethernet switch revenues declined 14.1 per cent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2024 to $10.2 billion (A$15.16 billion), but rose 15.4 per cent compared to the first quarter of this year.

Total worldwide enterprise and service provider (SP) router revenues declined 30.6 per cent year-over-year to $3.2 billion (A$4.76 billion) in Q2 2024. The service provider segment of the router market, which includes both communications SPs and cloud SPs, made up 72.4 per cent of the total router market and declined 35.2 per cent year over year and 3.4 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2024. Revenues in the enterprise segment account for the remaining share of the market and declined 14.9 per cent annually but rose 14.7 per cent sequentially.

The top companies driving the Ethernet switch market globally include Cisco, Arista Networks, Huawei, HPE and H3 C, according to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) which has recently presented its Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker reports.

Ethernet switch revenues at Cisco declined 36.6 per cent year-over-year in Q2 2024, but rose 2.1 per cent compared to the first quarter of this year.

Cisco’s total Ethernet switch share stood at 34.8 per cent in the second quarter, down from 47.1 per cent in the same quarter last year. Cisco’s combined service provider and enterprise router revenue declined 39.2 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter too.

Ethernet switch revenues at Arista Networks – 90.2 per cent of which are in the datacentre segment – increased 12.4 per cent year over year in the second quarter of 2024 and 7 per cent sequentially, giving the company a 13.5 per cent market share.

Total Ethernet switch revenue at Huawei increased 15.5 per cent year over year in Q2 2024 and rose 100.9 per cent sequentially, landing the company a market share of 12 per cent in the second quarter.

Huawei’s combined service provider and enterprise router revenue declined 36.6 per cent year over year in the second quarter of 2024, giving it a 30 per cent market share.

HPE’s Ethernet switch revenue – 86.2 per cent of which are in the non- datacentre segment – declined 25.2 per cent year over year but rose 6.5 per cent from the first to the second quarter of this year, giving the company a 6.2 per cent market share.

H3C’s Ethernet switch revenue declined 3.7 per cent year over year and rose 30.3 per cent sequentially for a market share of 4.5 per cent at the end of the second quarter. In the combined service provider and enterprise routing market, H3C’s revenues decreased 1.7 per cent year-over-year, giving the company a 2.9 per cent market share.

There were mixed results across the datacenter and non-datacenter portions of the Ethernet switch market.

Revenues in the datacenter segment of the market rose 7.6 per cent year over year and 15.8 per cent sequentially from the first to the second quarter of this year.

The non-datacenter segment of the Ethernet switch market, which includes Ethernet switches typically deployed in enterprise campus and branch locations, declined 28.9 per cent year over year, but increased 15 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2024.

“Ethernet switching is an important technology for enterprises, service providers, and cloud giants, as the cloud and AI eras continue to drive increasing demands on connectivity,” said Brandon Butler, senior research manager, Enterprise Networks, IDC.

“In the datacenter portion of the market, enterprises and service providers are building ever-faster Ethernet switch speeds to support rapidly expanding AI workloads. In the non-datacenter portion, Ethernet switch vendors are embedding AI capabilities in software management platforms to improve operations and performance. “