CANADIAN ETHERNET SWITCH
MARKET REPORT

NBI/Michael Sone Associates
193 Church Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5B 1Y7
Telephone # (416) 360-0424
e-mail: msone@nbicanada.com

July 2007

Market At A Glance

Manufacturer Profiles

Market Revenues and Shipments

Shipments by Speed Segment

Shipments by Switch Type Segment

Shipments by PoE Segment

Switch Shipments by PoE, by Manufacturer, 2007

Shipments by Industry

Shipments by Province

Installed Base

NBI/Michael Sone Associates is pleased to present the first edition of the Canadian Ethernet Switch Market Report.

Examining the period 2005-2007 and with a forecast for 2008-2009, this report describes the Canadian enterprise market for Ethernet Layer 2/3 switches, the data switching infrastructure used by businesses to connect workstations, IP telephones and other computer network nodes and endpoints. This 95-page report’s 49 exhibits provide detailed information on annual switch shipments by total ports, port speed, switch type (fixed/stackable versus modular), Power over Ethernet (PoE), vertical industry, province and installed base. Market data is both summarised using NBI/Michael Sone Associates’ popular Market At A Glance presentation and detailed in tabular exhibits.

Also included is a discussion of trends in the small/medium enterprise (SME) and enterprise market segments. 

The leading vendors in Canada — 3Com, Alcatel-Lucent, Dell, Cisco, Foundry, HP ProCurve and Nortel are profiled with quantitative and qualitative information covering their business strategy, products, pricing, revenue and distribution.

Please note that, except where specific models are explicitly mentioned, 8-port and smaller unmanaged consumer-grade switches such as those sold in retail computer stores have been excluded from this report. Although sometimes used in small offices/home offices (SOHOs), these inexpensive simple switches lack the functionality required to be considered business grade products.

Please also note that all reported revenues are stated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted and reported at end-user retail levels (rather than manufacturer wholesale levels). Our revenue estimates represent proceeds from the sale of Ethernet switches in the Canadian enterprise market only, and exclude revenues from the sale of any add-on non-switching options as well as consulting and professional services including fees for installation, maintenance contracts and service.

The switch market is extremely price competitive, and our estimates of per-port pricing, while suitable for comparisons, should not be used for purchasing purposes. Per-port pricing varies with specific configuration, optional features, quantity and discount. Modular switches in particular have widely varying per-port prices. In addition to factors such as configuration and slot population, there are several variable common costs including chassis selection, line card/blade port density, single or redundant switching fabrics, redundant power supplies and fans, other high-availability options, optional WAN interfaces, and optional routing and security functionality.

As with all NBI/Michael Sone Associates reports, information has been gathered from primary sources – chiefly, from the industry participants themselves. The data is also supplemented where noted with economic background information from secondary sources including the Bank of Canada and Statistics Canada.

This report, together with others on business telephone systems, automatic call distribution (ACD) and other inbound contact centre equipment, voice mail and unified messaging, video conferencing, and data and Internet networking sectors comprises NBI/Michael Sone Associates’ research on the Canadian CPE market.