SAN equipment poised for 50 percent growth in 2012

CAMPBELL, USA: Infonetics Research released excerpts from its recently published fourth quarter (4Q11) SAN Equipment market share and forecast report, which tracks storage area network switches and adapters.

Sam Barnett, directing analyst for data center and cloud, Infonetics Research, said: “We’re forecasting the overall storage area network equipment market to jump close to 50 percent in 2012 on the strength of Fibre Channel adapters, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) converged network adapters, and FCoE-capable switches. We expect eye-popping growth in the nascent 16G Fibre Channel host bus adapters segment.”

SAN equipment market highlights
* Global sales of SAN switches and adapters jumped 12.5 percent in 4Q11 to $1.3 billion, marking the overall market’s 7th consecutive quarterly gain.
* FCoE-capable switch revenue grew 24 percent in 4Q11 over the previous quarter.
* The emerging FCoE converged network adapter (CNA) market segment doubled in global revenue between the third and fourth quarters of 2011.
* Infonetics forecasts the overall SAN switch and adapter market to grow to just under $10 billion by 2016.
* Brocade strengthened its commanding lead in the Fibre Channel SAN switch market, ending the 2011 year with 2/3 of the global revenue; Cisco remains its strongest competitor.
* Cisco is the clear leader in FCoE-capable switches, commanding 88 percent of the global market in 2011.
QLogic and Emulex still hold majority share of the SAN adapter space, both posting healthy revenue gains in 2011 once again, though their rivals are also making steady headway as well