-- Cisco to maintain dominant market share
14 November 2002 -- In three to five years consolidation will leave clear number-two players (after dominant Cisco) in the switching vendor landscape. While the switching sector is "very crowded" analyst Yankee Group forecasts that the picture will be clearer in its report Enterprise LAN Switching: Who is Number Two?.
Foundry Networks will be the switching alternative for companies seeking a best-of-breed, high-end infrastructure; Nortel Networks is the only vendor other than Cisco that can provide a complete solution for small businesses through large enterprises; and 3Com will continue to dominate the SME space.
Armed with this knowledge, the Yankee Group recommends that enterprises:
- Re-evaluate vendor relationships during the next major upgrade.
- Consider speciality vendors as an alternative to Cisco for part of the infrastructure
- Try an alternate vendor; don't be afraid--they'll bend over backwards to steal business from a competitor.
- Choose Cisco if support and service is critically important.
Zeus Kerravala, vice president of enterprise infrastructure services and report author says, "With enterprises focusing more on products that can help them meet their business objectives, 'cool technology' isn't selling like it did in the 1990s, and the market can only support a few key vendors. Three will eventually emerge as runners up to Cisco, depending on the market segment".