This IDC study examines the shipment and revenue market shares for enterprise and service provider LAN switches by vendor for 2004, 2005, and 1Q06. The analysis is conducted for the total LAN switch market and for industry standard segments ? form factor (fixed managed, fixed unmanaged, and modular), speed (100Mb, 1,000Mb, and 10Gb), and layer (Layer 2, Layer 3, and Layer 4?7).

"The Ethernet switch market is the workhorse of the networking market. It is increasingly driven not by the desire for straight connectivity, but by the desire for control, capacity, and operational cost reduction, as well. Security, voice, and wireless will drive an increasing portion of the upgrade cycles over the next five years," says Abner Germanow, director, Enterprise Networks, IDC.