Cloud Service Providers Drove Demand Volatility of High Speed Network Adapters, According to Dell'Oro Group

Shipment of 10 Gbps Ports Declined After Six Quarters of Sequential Growth

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Mar 12, 2019, 08:00 ET

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In a newly published report by Dell'Oro Group, the trusted source for information about the telecommunications and networking industries, shipments of high-speed Ethernet Controllers and Adapters—25 Gbps and faster—had mixed results in the 4Q 2018 as Cloud Service Providers (SPs) varied deployments of servers. Concurrently, shipment of 10 Gbps adapters declined after six quarters of sequential growth as the Enterprise server refresh cycle eases.

"Growth in server purchases across the Cloud SPs was mixed. For instance, Amazon expanded server capacity in 4Q 2018, which drove the shipments of 25 Gbps Ethernet adapters. Conversely, Microsoft scaled back on server purchases which negatively impacted shipments of 40 Gbps ports," said Baron Fung, Director at Dell'Oro Group. "As a result, adapter vendors with a strong cloud exposure, such as Mellanox, saw more volatility than the prior quarters. On the Enterprise side, shipments of 10 Gbps ports is starting to decline in tandem with the tail-end of the Xeon Scalable server refresh cycle," Mr. Fung added.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2018 Controller & Adapter Quarterly Report include:

Total controller and adapter port shipments declined 4 percent quarter over quarter in 4Q 2018.
Shipment of 100 Gbps ports is forecasted to grow 79 percent in 2019 to the telecoms and cloud hyperscaler segments.
The Smart NIC market is forecasted to grow nearly 40 percent in 2019.

About the Report

The Dell'Oro Group Controller and Adapter Quarterly Report provides complete, in-depth coverage of the market with tables covering manufacturers' revenue, average selling prices, unit, and port shipments by speed (1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps, 40 Gbps, 50 Gbps, and 100 Gbps) for Ethernet and Fibre Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE) controllers and adapters. The report also includes coverage of Smart NIC and InfiniBand controllers and adapters. To purchase this report, please contact us at [email protected].

About Dell'Oro Group

As the trusted source for market information about the networking and telecommunications industries, Dell'Oro Group provides in-depth, objective research and analysis that enables component manufacturers, equipment vendors, and investment firms to make fact-based, strategic decisions. For more information, contact Dell'Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit www.DellOro.com.

SOURCE Dell'Oro Group