In the previous fiscal, LAN switches posted a healthy 57 percent growth over 1999-00, to register a total sales revenue of Rs 612 crore. The total number of switches sold during the year was 55,204 units. Growth came from almost all the industrial sectors, however there were two new exciting areas of action last year—call center segment and the Internet Data Center (IDC) segment. The call center segment was where large switch sales of Rs 1 crore happened, the major buyers being Flex, Ansals, Sitel, Spectramind, Air Infotech and Himalaya T Commerce, among others. The IDC segment also came up with orders worth Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore. Layer 3 switches comprised the major chunk of what was bought, but Layer 4-7 switches also made their mark in this segment. The active IDCs, last year, were VSNL, Satyam, Cyquator, Netmagic, Enron, Max India, Global Telesystems and Innodata.

The traditional switch buyers from banking & finance, manufacturing, transport/utility, and educational institutions continued to contribute in a quiet but significant manner. Banking and financial institutions executed the largest LANs in India, last year. To name a few, the big ones were BSE, EDRBT, RBI, Andhra Bank and NSE. Banks like ICICI, UTI, IDBI and Central Bank of India established their own data centers. The manufacturing sector saw large LANs being deployed by ACC, IOCL, BPCL, Carrier Aircon, Nestle, Cochin Refineries, Goodlass Nerolac, EIL and Kerala Rubber Board, among others. The IT sector, also lived up to expectations from the switch sector in spite of the global tech climb down. And, the educational institutions and transport/utility companies also contributed their share.

Last year, the switch market developed into multiple distinct categories. On one end, there were stackable and standalone 10/100 Mbps switches with different configurations of 8 ports, 12 ports, 16 ports and 24 ports. It was in this category that 3Com, the third largest switch market shareholder, in this year’s analysis, dominated the market. Its competitors were Intel, Cisco and D-Link. An average 16-port non-stackable model in this segment was at about Rs 15,000 per unit, with per port price of about Rs 900. The stackable switches were much more costly at about Rs 50,000 a unit on per port price of Rs 4,000.

Then there was the high-end chassis-based Layer 3 switch category where the royal battle raged between the biggies of this year’s Networking Masters, Cisco and Enterasys. The battle was tough, but Cisco emerged as the winner this time, thus enabling it to lead in the overall LAN switch analysis as well—Cisco ending the year with 41 percent market share and Enterasys with 32 percent. Cisco’s product range clinched the overall leadership for it, though Enterasys performed better in the high-end layer 3 switch category. The average price of a chassis-based Gigabit model stood at about Rs 30 lakh. The entry of Extreme and Foundry did not make much difference, as these brands, clearly, lacked NI representatives.

An interesting part of the switch drama during the last fiscal, however, was the entry of Layer 4-7 switch players in the market. Here, Nortel Networks with its acquired Alteon products dominated the market, though f5 also managed to create a flutter or two.

This year, the switch segment could be in for better times, as banks are expected to scramble up data centers as part of an RBI directive to the banks to consolidate their IT resources. Also, despite the global tech slowdown, the beginning of this year has already seen announcements by global technology giants like Lucent, HP and Intel to recruit local developers. These and other good signs like the encouraging general budget could place the switching segment to overdrive, in the current fiscal.