The global Data Center Interconnect (DCI) market is projected to grow at 10.5% CAGR in the 2014–19 period, surpassing US$4.2bn in 2019, according to Ovum. Revenues for DCI in 2014 reached US$2.5bn, growing more than 16% from 2013. Nearly one-half of all DCI spending in 2014 was from communications service providers (CSPs) but the Internet content provider (ICP) segment grew 64%. DCI growth is strongest in the ICP segment, which is slated to grow at a 12% CAGR for 2014–19.
According to the study, the DCI market is particularly strong in North America, where ICPs and carrier-neutral providers (CNPs) account for the majority of DCI spending. This is mainly driven by the enterprise IT evolution to cloud and the explosive growth of video which is driving strong growth in data center builds and fundamentally changing how networks are constructed. The ongoing surge in DC build-outs has also made DCI the fastest growing application for optical networking (ON) equipment.
Most data center operators lease managed DCI services from CSPs, but a growing number of ICPs (e.g. Google, Facebook) and enterprises are securing fiber assets and building their own interconnect networks, increasing the opportunity for optical networking (ON) vendors.
According to Ovum, Ciena is the global market share leader for the total DCI market. By segment, Ciena also leads the Government/R&E and Enterprise end-user segments. Alcatel-Lucent leads the CSP market, while Infinera leads the ICP/CNP combined segment.
Ron Kline, Principal Analyst, Intelligent Networks at Ovum
2015 is shaping up to be a very exciting year as metro-optimized 100G and adaptable-rate flex-spectrum 200G/400G capabilities enter the DCI market. We see tremendous opportunity for specialists such as Adva Optical Networking, BTI Systems, and Infinera to challenge their much bigger rivals for a larger share of this booming market.
By Wikieditor243 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
