Semiconductor supply constraints limit data center switch growth in 2Q21: Dell’Oro
The good news, according to Dell’Oro Group, is that sales of data center switches grew 7% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2021. The bad news, the market research firm states in its latest Ethernet Switch – Data Center Report, is that the revenue increase would have been larger if vendors had enough of the necessary semiconductors on hand to keep pace with demand.
“It is encouraging to see the robust sales performance being broad-based across all major regions, and customer segments: cloud service providers [SPs], telco SPs, and large enterprises,” said Sameh Boujelbene, senior research director at Dell’Oro. “Nevertheless, despite these strong results, it is important to note that demand outpaced supply and that sales would have been even stronger had the global semiconductor industry not been constrained. We expect demand to remain robust in 2H21 but further tightening in the supply chain may hinder market performance.”
This year’s second quarter marked the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth. Arista, Juniper Networks, and Star-Net Ruijie performed even better than the market overall and saw their market shares increase, Dell’Oro adds. H3C also had a good quarter that propelled it to the top of the market in China.
Dell’Oro says it has seen some switch stockpiling from some cloud SPs that resulted in share shifts within the 100-Gbps platform segment. Perhaps of concern is a reduction in interest among enterprises and small cloud SPs in 400-Gbps switches, although the plans for such switches among major hyperscalers continue to appear primed for accelerated adoption in the second half of this year.
Dell’Oro’s Ethernet Switch – Data Center Quarterly Report covers Ethernet switches for server access, server aggregation, and data center core. (Software is addressed separately.) The report contains market and vendor-level information on manufacturers’ revenue; ports shipped; average selling prices for both modular and fixed managed and unmanaged Ethernet switches (1,10, 25, 40, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800 Gbps); revenue split by market segments; as well as regional breakouts.
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
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