View from Abroad_____________
Network Market Hit Hard by Economy, but Primed for Rebound
Timing is everything in life and is even more critical in high technology, where products come and go faster than the latest buzzword. In a report released today, Infonetic research reports that sales of enterprise routers and WAN optimization appliances were down in the first quarter, because of the economy and a shift to lower-priced routers and low-end branch office devices. Among the finding in the report:
Worldwide total enterprise router revenues were $787 million in Q1 2009, down 20% from the previous quarter. After surpassing the $1 billion mark worldwide in 2008, WAN optimization appliance sales dropped 14% quarter-over-quarter in 1Q09, to $226 million
All the major vendors are being hit by the downturn and struggling to at least match revenues posted in 2008. The good news is that growing demands on corporate WANs — from telecommuters, social networks, and branch office activities -– is expected to bolster sales and stem the revenue slide this year.
Continued emphasis on software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing, unified communications and other technologies that rely on network bandwidth and speed will increase the demand for WAN optimization alternatives and less costly virtual optimization techniques.
- Tim Scannell
Source: Infonetics Research
