The networking monitoring equipment market bounced back to growth in 2015, driven by operators’ need to ensure mission critical network performance, new research has claimed.
A report from IHS found the sector, which includes switches and taps, jumped 24 percent to $513 million last year.
This followed a lacklustre 2014, when the market was hit by vendors integrating acquisitions and operators reducing their network expenditure.
The report noted that software defined networking and bare metal switch-based monitoring solutions were among those gaining traction, as operators looked to more effective ways of tracking their networks.
Advanced switches, which feature additional packet processing capabilities, accounted for the overwhelming majority of monitoring switch sales (78 percent).
IHS said 10G ports were the most common types of monitoring switches but described 40G as the new high growth market after shipments more than doubled during 2015. It predicted 100G would take off during the next 12 months, driven by deployments in production networks.
Matthias Machowinski, Senior Research Director, Enterprise Networks and Video, IHS Technology, said: “Driven by the need for robust network monitoring capabilities to ensure smooth operations of mission-critical network infrastructure, the network monitoring equipment market is projected to grow at a five-year (2015–2020) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 percent.”
He predicted growth would pick up in Europe, Middle East and Africa this year as currency effects declined. However, at two thirds of sales, North America is the domination market.