The Ethernet switch market continues to grow, driven largely by data center deployments, according to a report issued Monday by the Dell'Oro Group.

The market research firm said the market segment grew nearly 20% sequentially in the last quarter of 2009 with $600 million added by Cisco, HP, and Juniper in incremental revenues. Previously, Dell'Oro said it expects the Ethernet switch market to grow to $16.3 billion this year from $15.6 billion in 2009.

"Year-end budget spending and supply constraints from the previous quarter helped propel market growth in the fourth quarter," said Alan Weckel, director of the market research firm's Ethernet Switch research, in a statement. "We expect the market to continue to expand in 2010, especially as 10 Gigabit Ethernet continues to grow not only as a server connectivity technology, but also as an aggregation technology within the data center."

Dell'Oro noted that the 10 Gigabit Ethernet segment was the only Ethernet segment to record sequential port and revenue growth last year. Data center shipments accounted for most of the gains and the market research firm indicated that trend would likely continue this year.

Ethernet router and switch competition has been intensifying as Cisco, HP and Juniper step up their shipments, but also as IBM, a perennial leader in data center technology, expands its partnerships with Brocade and Juniper. Last year, IBM said the proliferation of mobile web and connected sensors is also expected to account for new drive in Ethernet switches and routers.

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