Gartner has named Cisco a Magic Quadrant Leader for Data Center and Cloud Networking 2020. Claim your copy now. Credit: istock 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. Magic Quadrant Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Data Center and Cloud Networking Source: Gartner (June 2020) Vendor Strengths and Cautions Arista Networks Arista is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Leader. Its offering is Universal Cloud Network (UCN), which includes 7000 series switches, Extensible Operating System (EOS), and CloudVision management and visibility platform. Arista is based in California, U.S., with more than 4,000 enterprise customers in this market. We expect Arista to make continued investments focused on as-a-service delivery and security enhancements. Strengths Arista has deep expertise and solid products to meet the needs of large and/or advanced enterprises, including cloud providers and financial services. Arista’s roadmap to enable cloud-managed data center networks and to provide increasing visibility aligns to the emerging needs of customers. Arista has strong support capabilities, based on Gartner inquiry and confirmed via reference surveys and peer insights. Arista is one of few vendors in this research that doesn’t outsource technical support. Cautions Arista has limited channel and sales resources in the midmarket, particularly outside of North America and Europe, which limits its ability to reach and support smaller customers in those areas. The acquisition of Big Switch Networks and continued expansion into campus networking could impact the vendor’s support quality and code quality, and/or constrain innovation as it focuses on integration. Arista is very focused on large operators, including service and cloud providers who account for over 50% of the vendor’s revenue. This could lead Arista to prioritize hyperscale needs over mainstream capabilities. Cisco Cisco is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Leader. Its offering includes fabric management via Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) or Data Center Network Manager (DCNM), Nexus switches, and associated tools including Network Assurance Engine (NAE) and Network Insights. Cisco is based in California, U.S., with an estimated 45,000 enterprise customers in this market. We expect Cisco to make continued investments to expand analytics and assurance, and enhance existing multicloud offerings. Strengths Cisco has solid products and a large and global installed base. The vendor’s portfolio offers feature depth and breadth and covers nearly all usage scenarios, including advanced routing and ultra-low-latency switching. Cisco’s roadmap to deliver increasing levels of analytics and automation aligns with emerging customer requirements to deliver a more autonomous and self-healing network. Cisco’s Network Insights improves Day 2 operational activities such as troubleshooting, reporting and bug scrubs, and integrates with both Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and DCNM controllers. Cautions Gartner clients report customer experience issues with Cisco at a higher rate compared to other vendors in this research. The issues are typically centered around product complexity, software quality or support timeliness. Based on inquiry and our quantitative assessment of per-port costs, Cisco’s solutions are more expensive than most competitors. Clients report that Cisco’s portfolio can be confusing to purchase and challenging to deploy as it contains several distinct components including APIC, DCNM, Tetration, NAE and Network Insights. Cumulus Networks Cumulus is a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Visionary. Its flagship product is Cumulus Linux, a network operating system (NOS) supported on certified switches, including Dell, Mellanox and others. Cumulus also offers hardware switches (Cumulus Express) and NetQ software for visibility and troubleshooting. Cumulus is based in California, U.S., with more than 1,500 enterprise customers. We expect Cumulus to continue investing to expand open networking and improve management. NVIDIA completed the acquisition of Cumulus Networks on 16 June 2020. This acquisition was not part of our analysis because during the period of evaluation, these entities were legally independent. Gartner will provide additional insight and research to clients as more detail becomes available. Strengths Cumulus’ portfolio and expertise is very well-aligned with organizations implementing DevOps principals and/or treating network infrastructure as code. Cumulus has been a pioneer in open networking and is available on multiple vendors’ switches, which increases customer choice and potential for innovation. The vendor’s roadmap and investments in automation and open networking are aligned with the emerging needs of enterprises. Cautions Cumulus is one of the smaller vendors in this research in terms of revenue and geographic coverage, which may limit its ability to grow in the market. Cumulus lacks several capabilities that mainstream enterprises desire including turnkey plug-ins for vCenter, Hyper-V, and ServiceNow. The vendor does not offer four-hour hardware replacement for its branded CX switches. All other vendors in this research offer four-hour hardware replacement for their branded switches. Dell EMC Dell EMC is a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Visionary. Its flagship product is PowerSwitch. PowerSwitch supports the vendor’s own NOS and third-party NOSs including Cumulus and SONiC. The vendor’s fabric manager is SmartFabric Director (SFD) and is co-engineered with VMware. Dell EMC is headquartered in Texas, U.S., with more than 20,000 data center network customers. We expect Dell to continue investments in open networking and deep VMware integrations. Strengths Based on inquiry and confirmed via reference surveys, the vendor provides strong service and support for customers. The vendor’s vision and track record around open networking have driven the market, enabled innovation, and forced competitors to respond. Based on the vendor’s roadmap, we expect this to continue. SmartFabric Director was designed to support multivendor NOSs, and was co-engineered with VMware to integrates tightly with NSX-T. Cautions The vendor was late to market with fabric management for stand-alone switches. Further, its fabric offering requires enterprises to buy and manage dedicated out-of-band switches, which increase cost and complexity of the environment. The vendor’s networking portfolio offers limited functionality for workloads in the public cloud, or agility for an already-deployed data center environment. The vendor’s roadmap is very tightly aligned with VMware, including NSX and vRealize Network Insight (vRNI). This may limit depth and breadth of investments Dell will make toward other cloud and orchestration systems. Extreme Extreme is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Niche Player. The vendor’s Agile Data Center offering includes multiple fabric offerings, hardware switches and the requisite management via Extreme Management Center. Extreme is based in California, U.S., with more than 6,000 enterprise data center networking customers. We expect Extreme to invest in the area of as-a-service-based management and improve investment protection across its portfolio. Strengths The vendor has good enterprise expertise and a solid portfolio of switches, management and integrations that can address most enterprise usage scenarios. Extreme Fabric Automation (EFA) provides simplified fabric functionality and is embedded in switches. Thus, it doesn’t require an external component to manage or purchase, which simplifies overall management and reduces costs. The vendor’s roadmap to apply cloud-managed networking concepts via ExtremeCloud IQ aligns with the needs of customers. Cautions Extreme’s portfolio has multiple switching lines and fabric management technologies from companies it acquired, including Avaya and Brocade. Customers and prospects report confusion with this, and we believe it increases likelihood of suboptimal product selection and limits investment protection. Compared to other vendors in this research, Extreme was late to deliver several capabilities in the market, including Ansible support, RoCEv2, 400G, a container network interface (CNI), and others. We assess that the vendor’s support quality declined compared to prior years. Recent data indicates improvement over the past several months. H3C H3C is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Niche Player. Its primary offering is the Application-Driven Data Center (AD-DC), which includes physical and virtual S-series switches, Comware-based NOS software, SeerNetwork Architecture (SNA) Center for management and control, and Seer Engine for visibility. H3C is based in Beijing and Hangzhou, China, with more than 2,000 enterprise customers in this market. We expect H3C to invest in applying artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) to improve operations, and in 400G. Strengths H3C has solid products and has demonstrated the ability to support customers in Greater China, including operators of very-large-scale networks. H3C offers excellent pricing for switches in this market, as reported by customers and confirmed by our market statistics. H3C provides strong networking integration with Unicloud, an IaaS cloud provider in China. Cautions The vendor has limited geographic reach, including installed base, channels and support services for companies outside of Greater China. The vendor lacks several key capabilities including configuration rollback, high-density leaf switches, and turnkey integrations with vCenter, Hyper-V, SaltStack, and Terraform. The vendor’s strategy is well-suited for large network environments in China, but we assess that it may not align with mainstream enterprise customers outside of Greater China. HPE (Aruba) Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Aruba is a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Niche Player. Its flagship product in this market is called Aruba CX, which includes NetEdit for fabric management, automation and visibility, CX series switches, and the AOS-CX operating system. Aruba is a subsidiary of HPE, based in California, U.S., with more than 6,000 enterprise data center networking customers. We expect Aruba to continue investments in the area of automation and cloud management. Strengths Aruba’s NetEdit provides fabric management in an intuitive UI, which can help network teams take an evolutionary path to increase automation. Further, it is one of the few management products available natively as a mobile app. The AOS-CX OS is used across campus and data center switches, which can simplify operations, especially when the campus and data center use a combined core. HPE’s current offering and roadmap are well-aligned with midmarket customers, based on the vendor’s management suite, expertise, customer support, pricing and channels. Cautions AOS-CX has limited third-party automation and platform integrations compared to others in this research. For example, the vendor lacks full support for Puppet, Salt, Terraform, vCenter and Hyper-V; and a CNI for Kubernetes. Customers report confusion over the vendor’s portfolio, which includes FlexFabric/Comware in addition to AOS-CX-based switches. These offerings have different operational interfaces and are supported on different hardware platforms, limiting investment protection for customers. Aruba has a limited number of large-scale data center deployments (beyond more than 50 switches) based on the AOS-CX platforms. Huawei Huawei is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Challenger. Its primary offering in this market is CloudFabric, which includes iMaster NCE Autonomous Network Management and Control System, and CloudEngine series switches. Huawei is based in Shenzhen, China, with more than 7,000 enterprise customers in this market. We expect Huawei to continue investments to drive autonomous operations and to support high-performance workloads. Strengths Huawei offers extremely cost-effective switching products compared to others in this research. For example, based on our estimates, the vendor’s average price is the lowest of any vendor profiled. The vendor has a solid portfolio of switches and associated management to meet the needs of most customers in this market. In particular, Huawei’s AI Fabric Intelligent and Lossless Data Center Network is well-suited to the needs of high-performance computing, requiring zero packet loss and low-latency networks that support RoCE, such as AI/ML and nonvolatile memory express over fabrics (NVME-oF) workloads. In 2019, Huawei surpassed Cisco to lead the global market in terms of combined data center port shipments for 10 Gbps and 25 Gbps. Cautions The vendor lacks turnkey support for several important automation capabilities including Puppet, Chef, Salt, Terraform, NAPALM, Nornir and images in GNS3. Huawei has a limited installed base, sales channels and experience in North America. We estimate that less than 1% of its existing customers are based in North America. We assess that large-scale and/or high-performance customers are driving much of Huawei’s roadmap. This may not align with broader mainstream enterprise requirements on a global basis. Juniper Networks Juniper is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Leader. Its primary offering in this market includes the QFX5000 and QFX10000 series switches, Junos OS and Contrail Enterprise Multicloud. Juniper is based in California, U.S., with more than 7,000 enterprise data center networking customers. We expect Juniper to make continued investments leveraging Mist to improve network autonomy, cloud-based management and 400 Gbps improvements. Strengths The vendor has a strong portfolio of hardware and software, with feature depth and excellent automation capabilities. As a result, the vendor can meet the technical needs of nearly all use cases in this market. The vendor’s roadmap to apply AI to improve data center networking efficiency aligns with the emerging needs of customers. Juniper has recently demonstrated a renewed focus on enterprise customers as noted by making large investments to grow its enterprise sales force. Cautions Based on client inquiry, Juniper customers have noted poor support experiences, including timeliness and quality. In Gartner reference surveys and Peer Insights, Juniper scores in the average range for support. Customers report that the vendor’s user interface for configuration can be challenging. The vendor has limited public cloud integrations for managing hybrid environments. NVIDIA-Mellanox Technologies NVIDIA is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Its primary offering in this market is Spectrum Ethernet Switches, acquired via the Mellanox acquisition in 2020. The vendor offers Mellanox Onyx NOS and supports third-party NOSs including Cumulus and SONiC, with central management via Mellanox NEO software. NVIDIA is headquartered in California, U.S., with more than 3,000 enterprise data center networking customers. We expect NVIDIA to target investments for large-scale environments and high-performance workloads, including 50/200/400 Gbps and telemetry. NVIDIA completed the acquisition of Cumulus Networks on 16 June 2020. This acquisition was not part of our analysis because during the period of evaluation, these entities were legally independent. Gartner will provide additional insight and research to clients as more detail becomes available. Strengths We assess that the vendor’s portfolio is well-suited to the needs of VXLAN deployments and high-performance workloads. In addition to switches, NVIDIA offers network interface cards, and both switches and interface cards can be managed via NEO. NVIDIA is a strong proponent of open switching, with support for multiple NOSs on its Spectrum Switches, including Cumulus, and full support for SONiC. Mellanox What Just Happened (WJH) is built into the vendor’s switches and provides detailed analytics and telemetry including the ability to dynamically capture packet headers, which can improve troubleshooting and mean time to repair (MTTR) for challenging problems. Cautions We believe the vendor’s current strategy and roadmap are highly focused on large-scale environments and/or high-performance workloads, which may not align with broader mainstream enterprise data center and cloud requirements. The vendor does not offer a modular chassis-based switch. The vendor has limited public integrations to manage, troubleshoot and configure networking inside public cloud environments, compared to other vendors in this research. VMware VMware is a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant; in the last iteration of this research, it was a Visionary. Its flagship offering in this market includes NSX-T, a software-based network overlay, and vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) for management and troubleshooting. VMware is based in California, U.S., with more than 6,000 enterprise data center networking customers. We expect VMware to continue investments in the areas of overlay/underlay management, security and predictive capabilities. Strengths NSX Data Center is compelling for customers looking to extend the agility of existing data centers, or those who want to enable intra-data-center security. The vendor has a strong vision to deliver an Amazon Web Services (AWS)-like experience that includes both on-premises and cloud locations, with a high degree of embedded automation and adjacent functionality including load balancing and security. vRNI has strong troubleshooting capabilities and is available as a service, unlike most vendors’ management platforms. Cautions VMware does not offer hardware switches or an NOS, which means that customers must acquire and operate the physical underlying network separately. NSX Data Center is undergoing a transition from NSX-V to NSX-T, and customers report that migrating to NSX-T is difficult. Clients remark that NSX Data Center is very expensive, which we believe is a primary reason that adoption has been limited to less than 10% of enterprise data center networking customers. Vendors Added and Dropped We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants as markets change. As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant may change over time. A vendor’s appearance in a Magic Quadrant one year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. It may be a reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or of a change of focus by that vendor. Added NVIDIA was added as it acquired Mellanox Technologies. Dropped Big Switch was dropped as it was acquired by Arista. Mellanox Technologies was dropped as it was acquired by NVIDIA. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria Vendors must provide hardware and/or software addressing the existing and emerging enterprise data center/cloud networking requirements outlined in the Market Definition/Description section. This requires at least three of the following product GA and fully supported capabilities (as of 15 February 2020): Physical switch: A physical network switch with at least 48 ports of 25 Gbps or greater, supporting multiple L2/L3 protocols Virtual/software switch: A virtual network switch that can run on a host, with support for multiple L2/L3 protocols, and provides switching between virtual machines (VMs) on the host NOS: A network operating system that can run on a physical switch or host, with support for multiple L2/L3 network protocols Programmable fabric: The ability to manage a collection of physical and/or virtual switches as a single construct, with embedded automation that is accessible via API Overlay: Network overlay software that can run on top of a data center network switching infrastructure Centralized management: Centralized visibility, configuration and reporting capability for the vendor’s data center networking components Turnkey integration with Ansible: Such as a certified Ansible module They must produce and release enterprise data center and cloud networking products for general availability as of 15 February 2020. All components must be publicly available, shipping and included on the vendor’s published price list as of this date. Products shipping after this date will only have an influence on the Completeness of Vision axis. Vendors must provide commercial support and maintenance for their enterprise data center networking products (24/7). This includes hardware/software support, access to software upgrades, and troubleshooting and technical assistance. They must show relevance to Gartner’s enterprise clients on a global basis by meeting all the following criteria: Demonstrate at least 150 current enterprise data center networking customers (under active support contracts). Must have at least 25 current enterprise data center networking customers, based in each of two separate continents (under active support contracts). Must have at least five badged full-time sales employees (such as account managers, sales engineers) that are headquartered in each of two continents. Must have global support (24/7) available in at least two languages and/or must have support documentation available in at least two languages. Note: These may require proof in the form of a customer list certified by an officer of the company. Further, paid proof of concept (POC) and “try and buy” scenarios are not considered customers for this context. Vendors must show relevance to Gartner’s enterprise clients by meeting at least one of the following, as of 15 February 2020: More than 1,000 current enterprise data center networking customers (with active support contracts). More than $60 million of recognized product revenue (generally accepted accounting principles [GAAP]) in the data center networking market during the past four quarters (i.e., as of February 2020). More than $30 million of recognized product revenue (GAAP) in the data center networking market during the past four quarters, and growth at more than 30% from the prior four quarters (as of February 2020). Note: These may require proof in the form of attestation by a financial officer of the company. Further, paid POC and try-and-buy scenarios are not considered customers for this context. Exclusion Criteria We exclude service providers offering managed network services that do not own their data center networking technologies, because they build their offerings with commercial vendor products as the underpinning technology. Evaluation Criteria Ability to Execute Product/Service This capability involves core goods and services that compete in and/or serve the defined market. It includes current product and service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills, etc. This can be offered natively or through OEM agreements/partnerships, as defined in the Market Definition/Description section and detailed in the subcriteria. This evaluates vendors by looking at their data center and cloud networking portfolios. We focus primarily on products the vendor leads with in enterprise accounts (i.e., flagship). This includes Ethernet fabrics, network overlays, physical switches, NOSs, network automation, and the requisite management, analytics, visibility and control of these components. Particular attention will be paid to network automation, turnkey integration with common cloud virtualization and orchestration, as well as automation systems used in the broader data center infrastructure, and the ability to support DevOps practices. We evaluate the vendor’s portfolio and product architecture, including feature depth and breadth, as it relates to the enterprise. Overall Viability We assess the likelihood of the vendor to continue to invest in and grow its enterprise business in this market on a global basis. This includes an assessment of the organization’s overall financial health, as well as the financial and practical success of the business unit. It views the likelihood of the organization to continue to offer and invest in the product, as well as the product position in the current portfolio. We assess multiple metrics including relative revenue and unit share, revenue/unit growth and customer acquisition. Sales Execution/Pricing This involves the organization’s capabilities in all presales activities and the structure that supports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation, presales support and the overall effectiveness of the sales channel. We evaluate the capabilities and effectiveness of the vendors and their associated channels, including the depth and breadth of their sales channel and coverage. We also evaluate how the vendors interact with their current and potential customers, primarily in presales activities, including account responsiveness and product positioning. The second aspect of this criterion involves our evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and cost flexibility of the proposed solutions, including purchase and support. We assess customer acquisition, hardware/software share, hardware/software growth and hardware/software pricing, as well as customer feedback regarding pricing. Market Responsiveness/Track Record This includes the ability to respond, change direction, be flexible, and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve, and market dynamics change. We assess the vendor’s track record in delivering new capabilities when the market needs them. This means exhibiting flexibility when necessary or staying the course in the face of fickle trends, and the ability to drive technology trends, instead of just reacting to them. This includes how well the vendor’s offerings match enterprise functional, financial and operational requirements at the time of purchase. We assess the timing of when new capabilities were delivered to the market, such as key product integrations and/or new pricing models. Marketing Execution This includes the clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the organization’s message to influence the market, promote the brand, increase product awareness, drive lead generation and establish a positive identification in the minds of customers. We assess the relevance of messages to the enterprise, consistency of message, and creativity/differentiation of message. This “mind share” can be driven by a combination of publicity, promotional, thought leadership, social media, referrals and sales activities. This focuses on how the vendor is perceived in the market, and how well its marketing programs are recognized. We also assess the vendor’s overall visibility and awareness in the market. A key indicator for the effectiveness of this criterion is how often potential buyers consider a vendor as a possible supplier in a shortlist evaluation. Customer Experience This involves products and services and/or programs that enable customers to achieve anticipated results with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes quality supplier/buyer interactions, technical support or account support. It may also include ancillary tools, customer support programs, availability of user groups, service-level agreements (SLAs), etc. We assess multiple aspects of the customer interaction, with a heavier weighting on postsales service and support activities. This includes customers’ experience with the vendors’ data center networking products and services used in their environments, including initial (Day 0) deployment, as well as day-to-day (Day 2) operation and management. This includes hardware and software quality, overall solution stability and how existing customers describe their experiences with the vendors’ products. We assess direct feedback from customers across multiple sources of information. Operations Not rated. Table 1: Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria Enlarge Table Evaluation Criteria Weighting Product or Service High Overall Viability High Sales Execution/Pricing Low Market Responsiveness/Record Low Marketing Execution Low Customer Experience High Operations Not Rated Source: Gartner (June 2020) Completeness of Vision Market Understanding This criterion involves the ability to understand enterprise customer needs and translate them into products and services. Vendors that demonstrate clear vision of their markets listen, understand customer needs, and can shape the market and add customer value with their added vision. We assess the vendor’s understanding of existing and emerging enterprise and cloud data center network requirements on a global basis. We assess how well the vendor understands its current market positions, including its own strengths and weaknesses. We also assess how well the vendor understands its market competitors. Marketing Strategy We assess whether the vendor’s marketing strategy is clear, relevant to the enterprise and differentiated in a way that will drive business. We look at the vendor’s plans to influence the market through its messaging and marketing campaigns. This includes clear, differentiated messaging and thought leadership aligned with product roadmaps. Sales Strategy We assess the clarity and relevancy of the vendor’s enterprise sales strategies on a global basis. This evaluates the vendor’s strategy to maintain and extend the scope and depth of its market reach. It includes go-to-market strategies, new use cases for products, alliances and partnerships. In addition, we assess how the vendor exploits emerging business and technology transitions, such as appealing to new buyers/influencers and offering new pricing models. Offering/Product Strategy We evaluate how the vendor plans to address current and emerging enterprise challenges as identified in the Market Definition/Description section. We primarily assess product-related roadmaps and planned capabilities the vendor intends to deliver. We assess the vendor’s roadmap of planned capabilities for their relevance and value to enterprise buyers. We also assess the degree of uniqueness and creativity of planned offerings. Business Model Not rated. Vertical/Industry Strategy Not rated. Innovation This criterion measures the vendor’s ability to drive, shape, or transform the enterprise market by delivering new capabilities. Innovation is not necessarily a simple check box of current and proposed product features or services. Innovations are not just incremental improvements. Innovation can cover multiple aspects of the vendor’s strategy. Innovations can deliver functional, financial and/or operational benefits to enterprise cloud and data center networking customers. Innovations address customer challenges and/or provide increasing value to customers. We look at how the vendor plans to invest in new capabilities to move its business and the market forward, with a focus on capabilities that are differentiated and offer high value to the enterprise buyer. This includes direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital for investment, consolidation, defensive or preemptive purposes. Geographic Strategy This evaluates the vendor’s strategy to maintain and grow enterprise data center and cloud networking customers on a global basis. This includes the ability to meet the specific needs of geographies outside the “home” or native geography, either directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries. In particular, this includes the vendor’s strategy for international sales and support, as well as its internationalization efforts. This criterion is important to buyers that want to use a global vendor. Geopolitical issues may also affect the overall viability of vendors in this market. Table 2: Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria Enlarge Table Evaluation Criteria Weighting Market Understanding Medium Marketing Strategy Low Sales Strategy Low Offering (Product) Strategy High Business Model Not Rated Vertical/Industry Strategy Not Rated Innovation High Geographic Strategy Low Source: Gartner (June 2020) Quadrant Descriptions Leaders A Leader has demonstrated sustained ability to address changing network requirements for enterprise data centers that underpin cloud and cloud-enabled infrastructures, including a complete product portfolio. A Leader also has high visibility in the market; the ability to drive, shape and transform the market; and can maintain strong relationships with its channels and customers on a global basis. Challengers A Challenger has demonstrated sustained execution in the marketplace, and has clear, long-term viability and visibility in the market and a solid product portfolio. However, a Challenger has not consistently demonstrated the ability to drive, shape and transform the market. Visionaries A Visionary has innovated in some key areas of data center networking, such as automation, open networking, management and/or cost reductions. Visionaries often help to transform the market by driving new ideas for solving enterprise challenges. Niche Players A Niche Player has a complete or near-complete product offering, but has limitations, such as geographic reach. A Niche Player has a viable product offering, but has not shown the ability to transform the market or maintain sustained execution. Context There are approximately 100,000 data center networking customers in the market, and client interest remains high. Gartner inquiries for data center networking increased about 10% year over year. Interestingly, about 10% of Gartner clients express a strong desire to “close the corporate data center” at some point in the future. However, products in this market are not exclusive to on-premises and colocation facilities, as they now offer functionality that extends into the public cloud providers such as AWS and Microsoft Azure. The focus from clients has shifted from traditional hardware switching to enabling private cloud and cloud-inspired environments, underpinned by virtualization and automation. However, network availability is still a fundamental requirement. Outages in the data center affect the business financially and reputationally, as 32% of reference customers indicate a one-hour network outage has a financial impact of more than $1 million, and 34% of reference customers indicate a one-hour network outage has a financial impact between $100,000 and $1 million. This translates to a need for high-quality hardware and software, solid customer support combined with strong automation and cloud integrations. Market Overview In this market, the primary business outcome is local network connectivity within enterprise data centers to support cloud and cloud-inspired environments, delivered in an automated fashion with central management. These environments are highly virtualized (typically 80%) and increasingly containerized (often 10% and growing). Based on our interactions with clients over the past 12 months, clients’ top priorities when picking a solution include: Core product functionality including switching, automation/agility and integrations with key third parties Corporate stability Product reliability/quality and customer support Roadmap and future vision As it relates to roadmap and future vision, key areas of interest to our clients include support for: Automation, including alignment with DevOps and infrastructure as code (IaC) principles Hyperconverged infrastructure Kubernetes and containers Multicloud networking Market Direction Over the next 18 months, we expect continued incremental improvements in automation, hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), containers, and predictive analytics. Further, we expect two substantial shifts to occur: (1) mainstream adoption of as-a-service-based cloud management, and (2) blurring of public/private data center networking offerings (i.e., multicloud versus distributed cloud). Beyond 18 months, the emergence of a viable open-source NOS is a strong possibility. Cloud-Managed Data Center Networks Cloud-managed networks are very popular for WLAN and software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) products to simplify management. While many clients would benefit from the simplified operation associated with cloud management, there is very limited availability and adoption of solutions in the data center market today. In fact, we estimate fewer than 100 customers are running the available options (which include VMware vRNI and Cumulus NetQ). However, based on the roadmaps of vendors and the value to enterprises, we expect this number to increase to more than 1,500 by 2023. In particular, this will be compelling in smaller midmarket data centers where a “two-switch data center” will support 1,000 VMs. Multicloud Networking Versus Distributed Cloud Data center networking vendors, such as Cisco (ACI Anywhere), VMware (“NSX Everywhere”), Arista and Extreme are extending their on-premises capabilities into public cloud infrastructures. So far, adoption and usage of these technologies beyond basic visibility are very limited. Further, we expect usage to remain limited and predict that the number of customers who use management consoles from their data center networking vendors to manage networking configurations within public cloud network infrastructure will remain less than 1% through 2023. Meanwhile, the public cloud providers are doing the same in reverse, with offerings such as AWS Outposts, Microsoft Azure Stack and Google Anthos. For example, AWS Outposts is a rack of equipment that includes two network switches managed/operated by AWS. We predict rapid adoption of these offerings. By 2023, we predict that more than 10% of large enterprises will be running on-premises public cloud infrastructure in their private data centers, which is an increase from less than 1% in 2019. (See “How to Bring the Public Cloud On-Premises With AWS Outposts, Azure Stack and Google Anthos.”) SONiC as Mainstream NOS For the first time in this market, a viable commercial ecosystem is forming around an open-source NOS: Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC). SONiC was initially written and open-sourced by Microsoft, and is reportedly within Microsoft Azure and several other large cloud provider networks, service providers and even several enterprises. Commercial vendors in this market are aggressively investing in SONiC, including supporting it on their switches, providing commercial support, and enhancing software stability, scalability and functionality. Vendors with GA support for SONiC today include Dell, NVIDIA-Mellanox, Apstra and Arista; and we expect other vendors to follow suit. As a result, there is a very strong possibility that, within the next two to five years, SONiC for data center networking will become analogous to Linux as a server OS, allowing enterprises to standardize on an NOS that is supported across hardware vendors. Evidence Gartner analysts conducted more than 350 client interactions on the topic of data center networking from February 2019 through February 2020. Gartner reviewed public-facing materials from vendors including websites, blogs and technical spec sheets. All vendors submitted responses to a questionnaire regarding their current and planned capabilities. We surveyed reference customers provided by vendors in this research (n = 81). Analysts reviewed Gartner’s Peer Insights reviews for this market. Automated social media listening tools were used to track user responses on social media and public discussion forums as leading indicators for consumer sentiment, preferences and activities. The data tracked is specific to quantifiable keywords (e.g., vendor flagship products) and phrases, as well as qualitative assessments, and evaluations of results and use cases. Port share for data center networking is derived from “Market Share: Enterprise Network Equipment by Market Segment, Worldwide, 4Q19 and 2019.” Gartner reviewed public financial statements for vendors. “Nokia, Dell, Apstra Get SONiC With Microsoft,” SDxCentral. Evaluation Criteria Definitions Ability to Execute Product/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor for the defined market. This includes current product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills and so on, whether offered natively or through OEM agreements/partnerships as defined in the market definition and detailed in the subcriteria. Overall Viability: Viability includes an assessment of the overall organization’s financial health, the financial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood that the individual business unit will continue investing in the product, will continue offering the product and will advance the state of the art within the organization’s portfolio of products. Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor’s capabilities in all presales activities and the structure that supports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation, presales support, and the overall effectiveness of the sales channel. Market Responsiveness/Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve and market dynamics change. This criterion also considers the vendor’s history of responsiveness. Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the organization’s message to influence the market, promote the brand and business, increase awareness of the products, and establish a positive identification with the product/brand and organization in the minds of buyers. This “mind share” can be driven by a combination of publicity, promotional initiatives, thought leadership, word of mouth and sales activities. Customer Experience: Relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients to be successful with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receive technical support or account support. This can also include ancillary tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups, service-level agreements and so on. Operations: The ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Factors include the quality of the organizational structure, including skills, experiences, programs, systems and other vehicles that enable the organization to operate effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis. Completeness of Vision Market Understanding: Ability of the vendor to understand buyers’ wants and needs and to translate those into products and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen to and understand buyers’ wants and needs, and can shape or enhance those with their added vision. Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated throughout the organization and externalized through the website, advertising, customer programs and positioning statements. Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling products that uses the appropriate network of direct and indirect sales, marketing, service, and communication affiliates that extend the scope and depth of market reach, skills, expertise, technologies, services and the customer base. Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor’s approach to product development and delivery that emphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature sets as they map to current and future requirements. Business Model: The soundness and logic of the vendor’s underlying business proposition. Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor’s strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs of individual market segments, including vertical markets. Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital for investment, consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes. Geographic Strategy: The vendor’s strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs of geographies outside the “home” or native geography, either directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries as appropriate for that geography and market. Related content brandpost Sponsored by Cisco Rethinking Cloud for the Future By Kostas Roungeris Oct 26, 2020 6 mins Cloud Computing PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe