Nvidia leadership claimed the company was “the largest networking company in the world.” Forrester’s latest data center network solutions Wave report says otherwise, with Cisco, Arista, and Huawei tipped as market "leaders."
Forrester's latest Wave ranking found Cisco to have the largest data center networking market share, with the vendor drawing plaudits for strong security and a unified platform anchored by its Nexus Dashboard. Forrester analysts went as far as to claim Cisco “lacks any major weaknesses” when it comes to capabilities in this space, though it cited customer concerns about Nexus Dashboard’s stability and maturity.
Cisco’s closest Wave rival was Arista, with AI-related innovations and strong customer and partner engagement among the accolades earned from Forrester. Customers praised Arista's Linux-based EOS network operating system for its simplicity, automation, and reliability, with Forrester adding that the OS provides consistency across the vendor’s portfolio in support of unified automation and policy implementation.
Huawei, the final of three leaders, was lauded for “strong, engineering-led innovation” aided by a well-defined roadmap and strong partner ecosystem. The Chinese vendor was described as having a “major presence” in large-scale data center networking both inside and outside its homeland, with Forrester saying its offerings were suitable for cost-conscious operations, adding “especially at scale or in emerging markets that value fast vendor response and close support.”
World leader or contender? #
Nvidia’s self-appointed market position largely stems from AI networking, with it crowned the “company to beat” in the AI network fabric space by Gartner. But for data center network solutions, Forrester placed the world's most valuable company as simply a "contender."
The analyst firm’s reasoning for its more lowly position stemmed from Nvidia's AI data center focus, which “leaves gaps in its vision and roadmap” for more traditional requirements like hybrid cloud, edge networking, and zero trust security.
“Given its niche focus, its pricing flexibility and transparency, community, and supporting services are limited relative to peers,” the analyst firm’s report reads.
Despite its more lowly position, Nvidia was listed as having the strongest AI infrastructure capabilities. Forrester again, however, found fault with the chip giant for having made “limited investment into management types, options, or administrative experience.”
Other identified gaps were in broader infrastructure provisioning and initial deployment areas, “especially regarding deep visibility, issue detection, fixing issues, and automated remediation.”
Joining Nvidia in the ranks of contenders were Extreme Networks, Dell Technologies, and ZTE.
Extreme drew plaudits for its clear, competitive vision and its easy-to-use Extreme Fabric Automation (EFA) but was found lacking when it comes to visibility and analytics capabilities, as well as sovereignty and nonstop switch operations.
Dell’s bet on a software for open networking in the cloud (SONiC)-based strategy was noted, but the company was marked for vision and innovation that lags behind peers. The vendor’s open play also drew ire for having “limited broader advancement” into areas like hybrid cloud integration, edge, and long-term offerings like quantum.
ZTE was found to offer high-performance fabrics buoyed by native hardware-software integration. Where the Chinese firm was found wanting by Forrester was its “heavy telecom orientation,” resulting in a “less developed” enterprise data center vision and roadmap.
HPE, Nokia praised, H3C & ALE on the rise #
The category behind markets leaders detailed a divided field. While Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Nokia secured spots at the upper end of the Wave, both H3C and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) lagged further behind.
Of the higher pair, HPE’s Aruba-led portfolio has been buoyed by the integration of Juniper Networks' technology following its acquisition, a highlight Forrester was keen to emphasize. The addition of Juniper’s Apstra Data Center Director (DCD), Mist Networking Data Center Assurance (DCA), and Junos switching has helped shape HPE’s “robust” data center networking capabilities, the analyst firm said.
Forrester said HPE’s offerings were best suited for enterprises that prioritize multivendor flexibility and advanced fabric automation, though it did cite customer feedback for Juniper’s networking and fabric automation feeling “ inconsistent between DCA and DCD.”
Nokia, meanwhile, only entered the data center networking in 2020 but has since worked its way up to a strong market position, the report said. Forrester found “no major weaknesses” in its strategy, praising the Finnish firm for emphasizing AI as a means to address the challenges of an aging workforce and declining network expertise.
Where Nokia lost points was the analyst firm finding its offerings lack microsegmentation and clear proof of large-scale deployments, which “leav[es] questions about its enterprise scalability.” Feedback from customers was also disproportionate compared to others on this list, with just one of its reference customers responding to Forrester’s outreach.
H3C was at the other end of the "strong performers" wave, being found to mirror much of the market in terms of vision and a strong push when it comes to telemetry-driven analytics. Where the Chinese vendor lost out was in lacking the customer resources compared to its competitors.
ALE was highlighted for its unified management platform spanning on-premises and cloud environments. Forrester identified it as the go-to vendor for simple, sovereign-friendly networking, though the French firm’s weakness was in AI infrastructure support.