According to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group, the Campus Ethernet Switch market has returned to demand-driven growth after the slowdown in 2024.
Revenue is expected to keep expanding over the next five years, as enterprises invest in higher capacity networks.
“The wide use of AI agents is expected to put new requirements on the local area network (LAN),” says Siân Morgan, research director at Dell’Oro Group. “It is still too early to determine exactly how it will play out, but traffic patterns, volumes and sensitivity to latency are likely to change – leaving room for product differentiation by campus switch vendors. Enterprises recognize the importance of a high-performance LAN, especially as they plan for the implementation of AI use cases.
“Outside North America, WiFi 7 adoption was strong in 2024. We expect that American vendors will see strong growth in WiFi 7 sales in 2025, and this will continue to fuel enterprise purchases of multi-gig, Power over Ethernet switch ports,” adds Morgan.
Additional highlights from the Ethernet Switch – Campus 5-Year July 2025 Forecast Report include:
- Revenue CAGR (2024-2029) from the sale of 5.0 Gbps ports is expected to exceed 20%, driven by higher speed WiFi APs.
- HPE has upside potential for new switch sales outside North America, with newly acquired Juniper Mist.
- Richer feature sets, including AIOps functionality, are expected to drive up vendor software revenues.
- End-of-Life dates in 2025 and 2026 are driving switch refreshes of both modular and fixed form factors.