Although other industries saw negative growth last year, worldwide sales of Storage Area Network (SAN) switches grew 15 percent in 2002, according to a report released by market research firm Dell'Oro Group. SAN switch sales increased to $954 million in 2002, and Dell'Oro Group expects the growth to continue. Last year's growth was credited to the introduction of many new products. One SAN technology that experienced the most growth was 2Gbps Fibre Channel switches. The SAN switch market transitioned from 1Gbps Fibre Channel switches to 2Gbps Fibre Channel switches, with the 2Gbps switches accounting for more than 95 percent of fourth quarter 2002 switch sales, as compared with 20 percent 1 year earlier.
The report included market share and growth information about 2002 worldwide market leaders. Brocade continued market dominance, commanding 58 percent market share with an increase of 19 percent in revenue. McDATA followed Brocade with 29 percent market share and 1 percent revenue growth. Inrange Technologies followed McDATA with 6 percent market share and 35 percent revenue growth. Dell'Oro Group expects worldwide 2003 sales to grow 12 percent to $1.1 billion.
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