Data Center and Campus Ethernet Switch Vendor Leadership: North American Enterprise Survey April 8, 2014

Transcription

1 Data Center and Campus Ethernet Switch Vendor Leadership: North American Enterprise Survey April 8, 2014 Excerpts TABLE OF CONTENTS TOP TAKEAWAYS: HP MAKING HEADWAY IN ETHERNET SWITCHING... 1 METHODOLOGY AND DEMOGRAPHICS... 2 HP LEAPS AHEAD OF IBM FOR TOP VENDOR PERCEPTION... 2 BOTTOM LINE... 4 LIST OF EXHIBITS EXHIBIT 1 TOP MANUFACTURERS OVERALL... 3 i

2 TOP TAKEAWAYS: HP MAKING HEADWAY IN ETHERNET SWITCHING We just finished our annual survey of IT decision makers to examine their attitudes toward Ethernet switch vendors, including vendor perceptions, vendor strengths/weaknesses, and future deployment plans. Among the key findings from our report: Respondents have healthy expansion plans for their networks and along with them their equipment expenditures. Organizations usually upgrade their networking equipment every 5 years and, for the most part, replace it proactively because it has reached life expectancy or because requirements have changed usually a need for higher performance and better security. Cisco is the most widely deployed Ethernet switch vendor by far, installed in the majority of campus and data center networks. Cisco scores high on all buying criteria, but respondents would prefer to pay less. HP makes a strong 2nd place showing in enterprises intending to evaluate the company for inclusion in their networks. HP s strong suits are their service and support, technology innovation, and value proposition. Juniper is the top specialist and continues to make good progress. Today, Juniper still lags behind the SMB vendors and IT giants but rises to 4th on the list of vendors under evaluation Key data points: Respondents expect the number of switches and associated ports in their network to grow over 10% by next year. Reliability, service and support, and technology innovation are the most important criteria buyers use to select vendors, and the most common reasons for changing vendors are reliability problems, lack of value, and major network refreshes or architectural changes. 1

3 METHODOLOGY AND DEMOGRAPHICS Using our panel of qualified IT decision-makers, we conducted a web survey in March 2014 with 157 North American organizations that have deployed Ethernet switches in their campuses or data centers and have at least 100 employees. To qualify, respondents were required to have detailed knowledge of their organizations' Ethernet switches and influence in the planning and purchase of them; 99% of respondents are either the primary decision-maker or have a lot of influence, and over 2/3 of respondents are IT managers/directors or CIOs/CTOs. HP LEAPS AHEAD OF IBM FOR TOP VENDOR PERCEPTION In an open-ended question, we asked respondents whom they consider to be the top 3 Ethernet switch manufacturers overall. This provides a good view of overall brand strength. Typically, the larger the vendor (e.g., broad product portfolio) and the more visible their brand (e.g., TV commercials, product placement), the better they fare in this question. The data correlates fairly closely to the installed vendor data, which is typical buyers made the decision to install these vendors in their networks, so they must have some redeeming qualities. HP is viewed as the #2 by a strong margin over IBM (who beats HP for current installations), which explains HP s rise in future evaluations at the expense of IBM. Dell and Avaya make a stronger showing here relative to their installed base though unfortunately this isn t translating to an uptick in future evaluations. Siemens makes an unexpected showing, thanks to their industrial Ethernet portfolio. 2

4 Exhibit 1 Top Manufacturers Overall n=157 Cisco 70% HP 29% IBM Netgear 20% 20% Manufacturers Dell Juniper D-Link Avaya Siemens Intel GE Microsoft Belkin VMware Brocade 12% 11% 10% 7% 6% 6% 4% 4% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Percent of Respondents 3

5 BOTTOM LINE Our research points to a healthy switching market ahead. The size of networks, and along with it, investments in network infrastructure continue to grow. Cisco is the established incumbent in this market and will be for years to come, but HP is best positioned to take on Cisco. There are theories that software-defined networking will topple the established incumbents in this market, but we see little evidence of this trend yet. Given that most equipment is deployed for 5 years, it will take time for new trends to start altering the market landscape. As always, I invite your comments. Matthias Machowinski Directing Analyst, Enterprise Networks and Video +1 (408) matthias@infonetics.com 4