16Gb FC Taking SAN Market by Storm, to Pass 8Gb This Year - Infonetics Research

Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its 2Q13 SAN and High Performance Interconnect Equipment (HPI) report, which tracks SAN switches and adapters and high-performance interconnect equipment, including FCoE/Ethernet switches and converged network adapters.

“Cisco’s 16G FC ports are finally hitting the market, and we believe its customers’ pent-up demand for FC inter-switch connection will help push 16G revenue past 8G by the end of 2013,” predicts Michael Howard, Infonetics research’s co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks. “Meanwhile, Brocade, which enjoyed a similar jump start when it came to market with 16G FC in 2011, is settling in for the longer-term 16G replacement of 8G as the speed of choice.”

Cliff Grossner, directing analyst for data center and cloud at Infonetics, adds: “We’re forecasting 16G FC switch revenue to grow at a 46% CAGR from 2013 to 2017.”

2Q13 SAN and HPI market highlights

The global SAN equipment market, including FC switches and iSCSI and FC HBAs, totaled $631 million in 2Q13, an increase of 4% from 1Q13, but a decline of 8% from the year-ago quarter (2Q12)
In the adapter segment, combined FC and iSCSI revenue fell 5% in 2Q13 from the previous quarter
Owing to its introduction of 16G FC, Cisco was able to buck a down quarter that plagued many of the other leading vendors in the SAN space
In 2Q13, the worldwide HPI market, including converged FCoE/Ethernet switches and converged network adapters, grew 26% sequentially, and is up 43% year-over-year
Growth in the HPI market continues to reflect operators’ ongoing investments in data center infrastructure and interest in LAN/SAN convergence
Sales of converged FCoE/Ethernet switches are up 26% in 2Q13 from 1Q13

Infonetics’ quarterly SAN and HPI report provides worldwide and regional market size, vendor market share, forecasts through 2017, trends, and analysis for chassis and fixed FC switches; FC and iSCSI HBAs; chassis and fixed converged FCoE and Ethernet switches; and converged network adapters.

Vendors tracked: Alcatel-Lucent, Brocade, Chelsio, Cisco, Dell, Emulex, IBM (BNT), Juniper, Mellanox, QLogic, and others.