Government initiatives like smart cities driving India's networking market: IDC

The networking market in India witnessed growth quarter-on-quarter as well as year-on-year, due to constant requirement build-up from different verticals in Q3 2014. According to IDC’s APeJ Quarterly Switch and Router tracker, the Ethernet Switch market stood at $131.2 million (in terms of end-user revenue) during Q3 2014, witnessing a growth of 2.1 percent quarter-on-quarter and 18.7 percent year-on-year. The router market, on the same lines, witnessed increase from previous quarter by 11.9 percent and stood at $76.5 Million, a 31.9 percent growth year-on-year. Cisco retained its dominance in the switch and router market, increasing its revenue quarter-on-quarter. “Major deals from communication and media vertical aided by orders from existing users and clientele were some of the main reasons for this growth,” IDC said. [caption id=“attachment_2059697” align=“aligncenter” width=“546”]  Source: IDC’s APeJ Quarterly Switch and Router tracker Q3 2014[/caption] The WLAN market in India witnessed a 12.3 percent growth quarter-on-quarter and  25.4 percent year-on-year during Q3 2014, registering $43.2 million as end-user revenue. Education, professional services and communication & media verticals topped the list in contributing to the India WLAN market during Q3 2014. “SMBs continue to spend on the same lines as their large counterparts on their expansion plans combined with mobility and productivity requirements for their teams and will continue with the same trend in the coming quarters as well.” The present hardware networking market is becoming more and more solution centric, where in the convergence of better technology, applications, pre and  post sales services, brand relocation and security is getting well defined as its components. [caption id=“attachment_2059703” align=“aligncenter” width=“544”]  Source: IDC’s APeJ Quarterly WLAN tracker Q3 2014[/caption] “The WLAN market in India is being driven by the traditional contributors such as the large enterprises and education campuses. However, with the recent announcement to have 25 hotspot enabled cities by June 2015, the WLAN revenues are expected to touch the roof during the coming quarters. On LAN side, the market is increasingly getting defined by the telco deals for 3G and LTE backhauls and expansions. Government investments are also expected in the light of various announcements and requirements,” Suman Bisht, market analyst – enterprise networking, IDC said. “Network is fast becoming the focal point of discussion and procurement in all the verticals, given the unprecedented increase in the traffic (direct or indirect) for organizations of all sizes. Whether it is third platform convergence, expansion or security infrastructure requirements, network remains the most essential bottleneck to be overcome in wired or wireless form. Government announcement of smart cities, Wi-Fi at stations and other places are sure to boost business in this market in the coming quarters,” added Gaurav Sharma, research manager – enterprise (India), IDC. Government announcements, increasing foreign interest in infrastructural development, smart cities etc. are all posing growth prospects for the coming quarters as vendors build new solutions and announce their compliance with this new vision. IDC expects the network market in coming quarters to grow with an exception of Q4 2014 that might be subdued due to seasonal slowdown, a trend witnessed in the past few years. WLAN market is also expected to grow owing to traffic offload and hotspot requirements in 2015. Communication and Media, utilities, manufacturing are some of the verticals in addition to education, healthcare and hospitality; where demand is expected in the coming quarters, the market analyst firm stated.