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Cisco market share report shows big lead for the vendor
This week, a report shows a big lead in Cisco market share in multiple segments; Ericsson extends its Cisco partnership; and Extreme targets retailers with new products.
New data released by Synergy Research Group indicated a Cisco market share that leaves the network vendor with a big lead over competitors. Aggregate revenues from the seven enterprise infrastructure segments -- servers, switches and routers, network security, WLAN, voice systems, telepresence and unified communications apps -- totaled over $88 billion in 2016, Synergy said, representing a 1% decline in revenue from 2015.
Cisco market share was the greatest in six of the seven categories. The vendor was only edged out in data center server sales, where it ranked fifth. Data center servers were the largest segment overall, with a revenue decline of 5%, while the second largest category, switches and routers, saw a 1% increase in revenue. Synergy said the WLAN market experienced the greatest growth out of the seven segments.
Synergy's data indicated across the seven segments, Cisco market share amounts to 33%. It was flanked by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which led in data center servers market share and rivaled Cisco in second place for WLAN, switches and routers. HPE accounted for 16% of the total market share across the seven segments. Other second-place vendors in different segments included Polycom, Microsoft, Juniper Networks and Dell EMC.
"Cisco continues to control a third of the enterprise infrastructure market and remains in a league of its own, despite a variety of challenges," said Jeremy Duke, founder and chief analyst at Synergy, based in Reno, Nev., in a statement. "The main disruption to the market is being provided by the growth of cloud and hosted solutions, which are redefining markets and enabling new competitors to emerge," he added.
Cisco and Ericsson extend strategic partnership to provide new Wi-Fi options
Cisco and Ericsson have announced that they will extend their strategic partnership to offer a new Wi-Fi system, called Evolved Wi-Fi Networks. The new product is intended to combine Ericsson 3GPP access, applications and core networks with Cisco Wi-Fi offerings.
The two vendors have indicated the new offering will include a wide range of features, including indoor small cells that combine Cisco WLAN and Ericsson indoor access networks. It will also enable traffic steering and core network integration.
"With Wi-Fi traffic predicted to grow to 50% of the total IP traffic by 2020, a top priority for service providers is to deliver the best possible connected experiences to their customers," said Yvette Kanouff, senior vice president and general manager of the service provider business unit at Cisco, in a statement. Ericsson will take on the development and delivery of the product, while Cisco will offer product support.
Extreme targets retailers with analytics, APs, switch
Extreme Networks, in expanding its market to include merchants and small-business owners, introduced a wireless analytics tool that allows retailers to target shoppers with promotions and other targeted information.
The Retail Guest Analytics app is the first product geared to retailers following Extreme's purchase of Zebra Technologies Corp.'s WLAN business last summer.
The app can store information from as many as 10 million shoppers, Extreme said.
In addition to the app, Extreme introduced two 802.11ac access points (AP) and a new switch, the 200 Series -- all geared to smaller businesses and retailers. It also rolled out a high-definition camera-equipped AP, the 3916i, for in-store video surveillance.
Viavi premieres new Observer Platform
Viavi Solutions, based in Milpitas, Calif., has announced general availability of its new Observer Platform. The updated offering now includes automated workflows, a 40 Gbps capture rate and improved analytics.
"More than just metadata, Viavi delivers the purity of complete forensic data at 40 Gbps wire-rate data center speeds to help ensure troubleshooting and threat intelligence information is always available," said Douglas Roberts, vice president of the enterprise and cloud business unit at Viavi, in a statement.
Viavi said the update was prompted by surveys that indicated 48% of respondents expected bandwidth demand to double between 2016 and 2017.
