In 2015, vendor revenue on the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) enterprise networking market decreased by a negligible 0.6% year-on-year, according to detailed competitive data reports released by International Data Corporation (IDC). At the same time, performance among the region’s three sub-markets — Ethernet switching, wireless LAN (WLAN), and routing — was markedly different from 2014.
“In 2015, the enterprise networking market in EMEA was practically flat after several years of revenue growth,” says Peter Kosinar, senior research analyst at IDC. “Nevertheless, the underlying technological and economic factors are strong enough to bring the market back to growth in 2016.”
Ethernet switching, which constitutes a clear majority of the market, declined by around 3% in 2015 following growth of 7.0% in 2014. Routing, on the other hand, posted 7.5% year-on-year growth after three consecutive years of contraction. The WLAN sub-market was up 5.0% year on year, but still significantly below the strong double-digit growth rates in previous years.
These findings come from IDC’s EMEA Ethernet switch, router, and WLAN trackers, which provide quarterly, country-level information on the performance of key market players, enabling study of competitive dynamics across underlying technologies. The sections below highlight some key findings for EMEA enterprise networking sub-markets in 2015.
Enterprise Ethernet Switching: Titans hold their market position; Arista clear #3 in high-speed segment
• The leading vendors, CISCO and HPE, maintained almost identical overall market shares from the previous year, with a combined market share of 71%.
• Due to economic difficulties in Russia and Ukraine, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) lost revenue share in the overall EMEA market, dipping below 10% in the first half of 2015, although signs of recovery were observed in the second half of the year.
• In the lucrative area of high-speed switching (10GbE and faster speeds), Arista claimed a firm third place behind CISCO and HPE. The positions of ODM direct vendors also strengthened significantly in comparison with 2014.
• 100GbE devices began shipping in the first quarter of 2015, and demand is expected to pick up strongly throughout 2016. The need for higher speeds in datacenters will also accelerate shipments of 25GbE and 50GbE ports, which will be increasingly affordable.
Enterprise WLAN: 802.11ac access points sales drive strong market performance
• The 802.11ac certified access points hit the market in full force in 2015, contributing almost 60% to overall revenue, compared to 28% in 2014.
- From a regional point of view, enterprise market revenues in both Western Europe and the Middle East and Africa grew approximately 12% year on year. At the same time, revenues in CEE decreased slightly, mainly due to the enduring volatile situation in Russia.
- The major market players maintained their dominant positions. Cisco claimed almost 50% of the overall market revenue, followed by HPE with more than 13% (boosted by the Aruba acquisition) and Ruckus with over 6%.
“The WLAN market continued to recover slightly in Q4,” says Elena Szolgayova, a senior research analyst at IDC. “Although 2015 was a still weak year for the enterprise WLAN market, and it is likely that we’ll see another single-digit growth year in 2016.”
Enterprise Routing: Midrange routers lead the growth; Huawei #2 among enterprise players
• The enterprise routing market is clearly dominated by CISCO, which accounted for more than 75% of total EMEA market in 2015. At the same time, the majority of enterprise routing players posted revenue growth.
• The highest revenue growth (almost 20%) was observed in the midrange router category, which are predominantly used by large organizations.
• Almost doubling its revenue from 2014, Huawei was clearly the fastest growing player, claiming a definitive second place. The bulk of the vendor’s growth stemmed from midrange routers.
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