The number of large and medium-sized enterprises using 10-Gb/s Ethernet for their core networks could grow by a third next year, according to a recent study by InfoPro.

In the study, which polled 126 Fortune 1000 and medium-sized enterprises, 26% of respondents said they are already using 10-Gb/s Ethernet in their core networks. Another 5% said they were currently evaluating 10-Gb/s Ethernet networking gear, 11% said it was in their near-term plans and 17% said it was in their long-term plans. Forty-two percent said it was not in their plans at all.

“The anticipated growth of the adoption of this technology is a direct result of the concerns over the growth of data in the enterprise and the applications that utilize that growing pool of information,” said Bill Trussell, managing director of InfoPro’s networking sector. “Virtualization of resources in the data center has put a strain on the core network in enterprises of various sizes.”

“In many cases, their core network becomes an impediment to the overall performance of the enterprise business applications,” he said.

Enterprises polled by InfoPro overwhelmingly cited Cisco Systems as their preferred supplier of 10-Gb/s Ethernet equipment. The vast majority of enterprises already using 10-Gb/s Ethernet said they use Cisco gear (more than 20% of the study’s total respondents), with Extreme Networks a distant second (named by less than 5% of all respondents). A few respondents said they used Ericsson or Enterasys products or their own home-grown gear for 10-Gb/s Ethernet. A few said they were evaluating gear from Force 10 Networks. And a few more said they would consider Foundry Networks, Nortel Networks, Juniper Networks and 3Com in their long-term plans.

One respondent told Info Pro, “Cisco can just flat-out offer a greater selection and functionalities than any other vendor out there.”

Another said, “We will look for alternative switches and routers because of the costs associated with Cisco. Also, we will look at the level of support and service.”

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