Cisco data center and cloud networking recognitions

Strategic Planning Assumptions

By the end of 2022, the number of enterprise network teams using a SaaS-based console to manage data center networks will increase by more than 10 times to more than 1,500.

By 2023, more than 10% of large enterprises will be running on-premises public cloud infrastructure (such as AWS Outposts) in their private data centers, which is an increase from less than 1% in 2019.

Customers who use management consoles from their data center networking vendors to manage networking configurations inside public cloud network infrastructures will remain less than 1% thru 2023.

By 2023, 10% of enterprises will fully integrate data center networking activities into CI/CD pipelines, up nearly zero in early 2020.

By 2025, 20% of data center hardware switches will be procured via an as-a-service model (i.e., hardware as a service), up from nearly zero in early 2020.

Market Definition/Description

This research evaluates data center and cloud networking hardware and software for enterprises that procure and manage their own data center networking infrastructures for installation on-premises or in colocation facilities. We also evaluate the ability to extend data center networking functionality onto public cloud providers’ infrastructures to better manage hybrid cloud networks. That said, we are not evaluating the internal physical networking infrastructures in public cloud providers’ networks.

Vendors covered in this research provide software and/or hardware to deliver network connectivity, primarily within enterprise data centers. Cloud and/or cloud-inspired technologies are now heavily used inside these enterprise data centers, including virtualization and automation. Thus, for 2020, we renamed the title of this research from “Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking” to “Magic Quadrant for Data Center and Cloud Networking,” to match enterprise expectations.

Specific components that make up vendor solutions include physical switches, virtual switches, network operating systems, Ethernet fabrics, and network overlays, and the requisite management, programmability, automation, and orchestration of these components. Furthermore, vendors in this market have recently begun to extend their network policy, network visibility and network management capabilities to support workloads located in public clouds.

Historically, the data center network was just a fast, scalable LAN that connected all data center equipment, mainly servers. Although high-speed Ethernet ports (10/25/50/100GbE) are still important, the market extends far beyond just the hardware “speeds and feeds” affiliated with switches and switch ports. Specifically, as many enterprises are building private clouds and/or cloud-inspired data centers, they need improved programmability, automation, orchestration and integration with the rest of the data center infrastructure.