Continued investments to accommodate the increasing demands that applications place on network infrastructure drove global Ethernet switch sales to $21.7 billion in 2014, up 5% from 2013, reports IHS business unit Infonetics Research.

“2014 was another solid year for Ethernet switches," says Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research. The only weakness, Machowinski says, was 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GE), where revenue growth essentially stalled as large data center operators migrate to 40GE and mainstream enterprises have yet to widely adopt 10GE. "As a result, 40GE is the key growth segment right now, but we only expect this to last for another one to two years, after which 25GE and 100GE technology takes over," he says.

Among the market highlights:

• In the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14), global Ethernet switch revenue totaled $5.9 billion, a 5% sequential increase driven by web-managed and fully managed switches
• China switch market revenue in 2014 grew 17% from 2013
• Port shipments grew 27% in 2014
• 40GE port shipments almost tripled in 2014 and revenue doubled
• 100GE ports grew more than six-fold in 2014
• “White box" switches—switches built by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) and sold directly to end-users—are seeing success with large web services and content providers like Google and Amazon
• Cisco Ethernet switch sales grew 1% sequentially in 4Q14, maintaining small year-over-year growth
• Huawei's 2014 Ethernet switch revenue was up 72% versus 2013 as it expanded into Europe.