In its latest research, Gartner has identified Arista Networks, Cisco, and Juniper Networks as the leaders in Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking.
Data center networking is a fast and scalable way to establish and interconnect all the physical and network-based devices and equipment within a data center facility. It ensures connection between the equipment and data center infrastructure nodes, so that data can be transferred between each other and on external networks.
With the rise in adoption of cloud computing models and support for digital business initiatives, the demand for improved data center networking agility has increased. The data center networking has now expanded beyond speed and scalability to switches and switch ports.
Companies are demanding better automation, orchestration, as well as integration with the data center infrastructure which includes storage, compute, cloud, management, and container management.
According to Gartner, the percentage of manual data center networking operational activities will fall below 50% by 2021, down from 80% today. The pre-dominant data center networking server access port speed is expected to shift from 10 gigabytes per second to 25 gigabytes per second during first quarter of 2020.
Gartner’s latest research about data center networking will help infrastructure and operations (I/O) organizations to decide which vendors best fit their requirements.
Arista Networks, Cisco, and Juniper Networks have been positioned as leaders in Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking, for completeness of vision as well as for ability to execute.
Gartner believes that the leaders have a sustained ability to address changing requirements for enterprise data centers. They also have high visibility in market, and ability to drive, shape and transform the market.
Arista Networks
Arista is Santa Clara-based networking company focused on data center networking. It delivers Universal Cloud Network (UCN) solution to cloud providers, large enterprises and financial services sector. The UCN includes Extensible Operating System (EOS) software, CloudVision management software and 7000 series of switches/routers.
Arista’s data center networking solution is an ideal fit for enterprises which require programmable infrastructure integrated with third-party software orchestration like VMware, Puppet, and Ansible.
Gartner said that Arista delivers increasing levels of automation and uniform policy across multi-cloud environments.
- Number of DC networking customers— 5,000
- Relevant geographies— Solid base in North America and Western Europe, with less coverage in rest of the world.
Cisco
Cisco has the broadest portfolio of hardware switches, which includes several form factors, interfaces and performance characteristics. Cisco ACI, the flagship data center networking offering of Cisco, includes Nexus 9000 hardware switches and the APIC controller.
It delivers increasing levels of automation, management and uniform policy across multi-cloud environments.
- Number of DC networking customers— 100,000
- Relevant geographies— All over the world.
Juniper Networks
Juniper is leading networking and security vendor based in Sunnyvale, California. It delivers a full portfolio of hardware switches, network operating system (NOS) and network overlay to enterprises.
The flagship data center networking solution of Juniper includes QFX switches running Junos software. Juniper’s portfolio of hardware and software services can help enterprises meet all the data center demands.
Based on open standards, the Juniper’s solution is ideal for large-scale environments for service providers and large enterprises.
- Number of DC networking customers— 3,000
- Relevant geographies— All over the world.
Also read: Top companies that featured in Leaders Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management 2018: Gartner
While these three are the leaders in data center networking market, Gartner identified Huawei and Extreme Networks as challengers.
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