Cisco's Networking Share Continues To Slip As Huawei, Arista Climb In $10B Worldwide Switch Router Market

Switch, Router Market In Q2 2017

Cisco's networking dominance continues to slip as competition heated up during second-quarter 2017, according to data from IT research firm IDC. Worldwide revenue for Ethernet switches and routers combined for a total of $10.35 billion during the quarter.

"Application explosion associated with digital transformation and continued proliferation of cloud buildouts underpinned a strong market performance in 2Q 17," said Rohit Mehra, vice president of Network Infrastructure at IDC, in a statement. "These transformational trends drive port shipments up; however, the promise of emerging higher port speeds continually shifts the dynamics of Ethernet switching investments. Solid growth should continue throughout 2017, even as Ethernet switching and routing purchase behavior trends may take some turns."

CRN breaks down everything you need to know about the switch and router market for second-quarter 2017.

Cisco Switching Share Declining

Cisco Q2 2017 Market Share: 54.7%

Cisco Q2 2016 Market Share: 56.8%

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant finished the second quarter with a 4 percent increase year over year in switching revenue, with Cisco capturing over $3.5 billion in the quarter. However, Cisco's switch share dropped 2.1 percent compared with the same quarter one year ago. In the hotly competitive 10-GbE market, Cisco owned 52 percent share in second-quarter 2017.

During Cisco's fourth fiscal quarter earnings last month, CEO Chuck Robbins said the company's networking drop was due to a "pause" in customers spending after the company launched its Intuitive Network platform in June.

Huawei Share Jumps

Huawei Q2 2017 Market Share: 8.5%

Huawei Q2 2016 Market Share: 6.5%

The Chinese network and telecom giant grew switching sales by 40 percent year over year, capturing $546 million in the second quarter of 2017. Huawei's market share climbed 2 percent compared with the same quarter one year ago.

In a recent interview with CRN, Huawei said it's taking market share from Cisco through "openness."

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

HPE Q2 2017 Market Share: 5.6%

HPE Q2 2017 Market Share: 6%

Switching revenue for Hewlett Packard Enterprise decreased by less than 1 percent year over year, generating $360 million during the second quarter. HPE's market share also slightly dropped by 0.4 percent compared with one year ago. (Starting in second quarter 2016, HPE and H3C networking numbers were tracked separately.)

Aruba Networks, an HPE company, has been combining networking, security and software together – launching its new 360 Secure Fabric this month.

Arista Networks Sales Up 50%

Arista Q2 2017 Market Share: 5.5%

Arista Q2 2016 Market Share: 3.9%

The fast-growing data center networking specialist increased switching sales by 50 percent year over year, hitting $353 million during the quarter. Arista also grew market share by 1.6 percent in the second quarter compared with the same quarter one year ago.

Juniper Networks Switch Revenue Up 33%

Juniper Q2 2017 Market Share: 4.3%

Juniper Q2 2016 Market Share: 3.5%

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based networking vendor increased switching sales by 33 percent year over year, capturing $276 million during the second quarter. The sales boosted Juniper's market share by 0.8 percent in second-quarter 2017 compared with the same quarter one year ago.

Juniper has been striving to ramp up its security offensive in 2017, announcing its intent to acquire analytics software startup Cyphort last month.

$6.4B Switching Market In Q2

With Cisco, Huawei, HPE-Aruba, Arista and Juniper leading the way, the worldwide Ethernet switch market generated $6.43 billion in revenue during the quarter, representing a 7.8 increase year over year.

Revenue from 10-GbE switches increased 4.2 percent year over year in second-quarter 2017, coming in at $2.24 billion, while 10-GbE port shipments grew 53 percent with over 13.8 million ports shipped during the quarter.

Sales from 40-GbE came in at $681 million in the second quarter, representing a 9.1 decline compared with the same quarter one year ago. Port shipments fell for 40-GbE switches just below 1.4 million, representing a decrease of 27 percent year over year.

Revenue from 100-GbE switching grew a whopping 284 percent with shipments increasing 639 percent year over year.

Cisco Routing Share Drops

Cisco Q2 2017 Market Share: 41.2%

Cisco Q2 2016 Market Share: 44.8%

Cisco's combined service provider and enterpriser router revenue dropped 2 percent year over year, with the networking leader capturing over $1.6 billion during the quarter. Cisco's routing market share continued to decline rapidly, dropping 3.6 percent in the second quarter compared with the same quarter one year ago.

Huawei Router Share Soars

Huawei Q2 2017 Market Share: 25.2%

Huawei Q2 2016 Market Share: 18.9%

Huawei's share in the router market jumped 6.3 percent during the second quarter compared with the same quarter one year ago. The vendor increased router sales by 42 percent year over year, hitting $987 million during the second quarter.

Juniper Loses 1% Share

Juniper Q2 2017 Market Share: 14.6%

Juniper Q2 2016 Market Share: 15.7%

Juniper's routing revenue slightly decreased by less than 1 percent year over year, capturing $572 million during the second quarter. The networking vendor's share dropped 1.1 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared with the same quarter one year ago.

$3.9B Router Market In Q2

The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market generated $3.92 billion in revenue during second-quarter 2017, representing a 6.7 percent increase year over year. The increase was due to a 11 percent spike in the large service provider segment, while there was a 7 percent decrease in enterprise routing. IDC said software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) has the potential to disrupt traditional routing architectures and WAN services markets, especially at the network edge.