Researcher: 10G will account for more than half of Ethernet data center switch ports shipped this year

“10 Gigabit Ethernet is finally on the verge of becoming the most popular data center switch port connection, after a long and sometimes rocky adoption curve,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, when announcing the findings of the firm’s latest report. He followed up that comment with a rosy outlook for 40GbE: “As 40GbE starts to ramp, we are still forecasting its adoption curve to look much better than that of 10GbE. This is already evidenced by the fact that recent data center switch introductions are really pushing the envelope on 40GbE port densities and economics.”

Crehan Research’s Data Center Switch Long-Range Forecast Report also forecasts 2014 to be a crossover year for Fibre Channel and Infiniband, as follows.

• In Infiniband, 56Gbps FDR will overtake 40Gbps QDR to comprise more than 50 percent of shipments.
• In Fibre Channel, 16Gbps will exceed 8Gbps to comprise more than 50 percent of shipments.

“In Fibre Channel, the report further shows that despite a more-gradual ramp than seen for 8Gbps, 16Gbps Fibre Channel adoption is picking up steam,” the research firm said. “In the Infiniband switch market, 56Gbps FDR is well on its way to becoming the next de-facto high-speed interconnect, setting the foundation for upgrades to the forthcoming 100Gbps EDR products.”