Three vendors are trying for the number two slot in enterprise networking and communications, says market research firm Infonetics Research. The enterprise networking and communication infrastructure market is highly fragmented, with well over 100 vendors vying for a piece of this $50bn market.
Excerpts from its 2014 Enterprise Networking and Communication Equipment Vendor Scorecard, which profiles, analyses, and ranks the seven leading vendors of enterprise networking, network security, and communication equipment and software worldwide cover Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Brocade, Cisco, HP, Juniper, and NEC.
"Cisco dominates the enterprise networking and communication market by a wide margin, due to offering the broadest solution portfolio, receiving positive feedback from enterprises, and capturing significant market share. The battle for second place is raging between Brocade, HP, and Juniper, and each has unique strengths: Brocade has the strongest financials, HP is growing the fastest, and Juniper has experienced the highest improvement in enterprise feedback," notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research and lead author of the report.
Infonetics' scorecard evaluates vendors on criteria using actual data and metrics, such as direct feedback from buyers, vendor market share, share momentum, financials, and solution portfolio. This approach aims to eliminate subjective scoring and ensures vendors are assessed accurately and fairly.
Repeating its performance in last year's scorecard, Cisco once again earned the highest overall score by far, attaining perfect scores in 6 of 7 criteria and even improving on market share momentum, but the battle for second place heated up this year, with Brocade holding on to the spot again thanks to its strong financials, and is followed very closely by HP and Juniper
HP captured showed most improvement; NEC's top position in Japan's enterprise telephony market helped place it 5th in Infonetics' 2014 scorecard.