2006: a boom year for enterprise optical networks

21 Nov 2006

This year, 2006, will come to be seen as a "banner" year for enterprise deployment of optical networks, says analyst IDC.

The worldwide growth of enterprise optical networking market will exceed 17% in 2006, a rate nearly twice as fast as that of overall optical market growth, a new market study from IDC reports.

Significant factors behind this dramatic growth are new regulatory requirements concerning the management, storage and recovery of data, as well as the effects of company mergers on communications restructuring.

Deployment of optical networks, once dominated by financial services, is now expanding to include major health institutions, state and local government, and utilities, and has started extending to small and medium sized businesses.

"While a number of these vertical markets offer tremendous opportunities, significant differences in the adoption of optical networking equipment exist across verticals world-wide," said Daniel Corsetti, senior analyst for IDC's Hardware and Telecommunications Vertical Views programs.

"From a regional perspective, the [technologically] emerging countries where no legacy infrastructures are in place, are the fastest growing sector for deploying optical networks."

Eve Griliches, program manager for Telecommunications Equipment at IDC, added, "Although the enterprise is now a significant contributor to the overall growth of the optical networking market, the enterprise organization is very different from the typical telecommunication service provider. To ensure success, vendors should consider deploying savvy sales people who understand the enterprise environment."

IDC's study, Worldwide Optical Networking Equipment Forecast by Vertical Market, 2006-2010, provides insight into the expansion, deployment models, and drivers of the enterprise optical networks markets, in the US and the rest of the world. It offers recommendations to vendors on how to enter and grow in this market.

Topics covered:

• The differences across verticals worldwide and spending trends in each optical segment.

• The dichotomy between service providers offering managed lambda services and companies venturing to build their own private optical networks.

To purchase the report, contact IDC Sales at +1 508 988 7988 or email sales@idc.com.