The 2019 networking brand leader surveys cover thirteen networking products. This report includes the results of IT Pro voting for six categories of brand leadership for each service: Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support and Innovation.

1. Networking
2019 Brand Leader Survey Report

2. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Networking Brand Leader Survey
Report
The 2019 networking brand leader surveys cover thirteen
networking products.
This report includes the results of voting for six categories of
brand leadership for each service: Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Service & Support and Innovation.
Numerical survey data is available upon request. Please contact
us at info@itbrandpulse.com.
2

3. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
2019 Networking Brand Leader Survey Table of Contents Page
Brand Leader Survey Methodology 4
Brand Leader Voting Definitions 5
Survey Respondent - Title/Job Description 7
Survey Respondent - Data Center Environment 8
2019 Networking Brand Leader Survey Winners Chart 10
Product Category Definitions 11
Summary Analysis 12
100-400Gb Ethernet Switches 2019 Brand Leader Chart 13
25-100Gb Ethernet Adapters 2019 Brand Leader Chart 14
25-100Gb Ethernet Switches 2019 Brand Leader Chart 15
Fibre Channel HBAs 2019 Brand Leader Chart 16
Fibre Channel Switches 2019 Brand Leader Chart 17
Hardware Application Delivery Controllers 2019 Brand Leader Chart 18
Multi-Protocol (Ethernet/FC) Storage Switches 2019 Brand Leader Chart 19
Network Performance Management 2019 Brand Leader Chart 20
Open Networking Switch (Bare Metal Switch) 2019 Brand Leader Chart 21
Open Networking Switch OS 2019 Brand Leader Chart 22
Packet Capture Appliances 2019 Brand Leader Chart 23
SDN / Network Virtualization 2019 Brand Leader Chart 24
Software ADC 2019 Brand Leader Chart 25
About the Author 26
3

4. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
4
• Brand Leader reports are designed to measure the pulse of brand leadership in specific product
categories using results from independent, non-sponsored surveys with at least 200 respondents.
• The Networking Brand Leader Survey was conducted in January, 2019.
– Respondents were solicited from over 1,000,000 members of 100+ online IT groups, and from the IT Brand
Pulse database of 150,000 IT professionals.
– Two hundred and sixty IT Pros responded to this survey.
– Responses were collected using an online survey engine.
• In each part, respondents were provided with a product category description, randomly-listed vendor
choices (plus an “Other” answer choice to add a vendor, if applicable), and were asked six questions:
1. Who do you perceive as the <product category> market leader?
2. Who do you perceive as the <product category> price leader?
3. Who do you perceive as the <product category> performance leader?
4. Who do you perceive as the <product category> reliability leader?
5. Who do you perceive as the <product category> service & support leader?
6. Who do you perceive as the <product category> innovation leader?
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4
Networking
Brand Leader Survey Methodology

5. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Brand Leader Definitions
5

6. Respondent Profiles
Networking
2019 Brand Leader Survey

7. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Respondent Title/Job Description:
VAR/OEM
Data Center Manager
Storage Administrator/Architect
Executive/Management
Network Administrator/Architect
Server Administrator/Architect
Other
IT Manager/Director
7

8. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Your environment is best described as:
Product Development
High-Performance Computing Data Center
Public Cloud/Data Center Provider
Other
Small-Medium Business Data Center
Enterprise Data Center
8

9. Survey Results
Networking
2019 Brand Leader Survey

10. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
2019
Networking
Brand Leaders
Voted by IT Pros
100-400Gb Ethernet Switches Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco
25-100Gb Ethernet Adapters Mellanox Broadcom Mellanox Mellanox Mellanox Mellanox
25-100Gb Ethernet Switches Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco
Fibre Channel HBAs Broadcom/Emulex Broadcom/Emulex Broadcom/Emulex Broadcom/Emulex Broadcom/Emulex Broadcom/Emulex
Fibre Channel Switches Broadcom/Brocade Broadcom/Brocade Broadcom/Brocade Broadcom/Brocade
Broadcom/Brocade &
Cisco (tie)
Broadcom/Brocade
Hardware Application Delivery
Controllers
F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5
Multi-Protocol (Ethernet/FC)
Storage Switches
Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco
Network Performance
Management
SolarWinds SolarWinds SolarWinds Cisco
SolarWinds & Cisco
(tie)
SolarWinds
Open Networking Switch (Bare
Metal Switch)
Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC
Open Networking Switch OS Big Switch Big Switch Arista Big Switch
Arista & Big Switch
(tie)
Big Switch
Packet Capture Appliances Riverbed Riverbed Riverbed Riverbed Riverbed Riverbed
SDN / Network Virtualization VMware VMware VMware VMware VMware VMware
Software ADC F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 10

11. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
11
Product Category Definitions
• 100-400Gb Ethernet Switches: Ethernet switches designed to deliver 100 to 400 GbE connectivity on a single port.
• 25-100Gb Ethernet Adapters: Ethernet adapters designed to deliver 25,40,50, and/or 100 GbE connectivity.
• 25-100Gb Ethernet Switches: Ethernet switches designed to deliver 25,40,50, and/or 100 GbE connectivity on a single port.
• Fibre Channel HBAs: Server adapters used to connect a server to a Fibre Channel SAN.
• Fibre Channel Switches: Fibre Channel switches designed to deliver Fibre Channel connectivity.
• Hardware Application Delivery Controllers: A network device that helps web server performance by performing tasks such
as: compression, cache, connection multiplexing, application layer security, SSL offload, and content switching; combined with
basic server load balancing. ADCs are usually placed between the firewall/router and the web farm.
• Multi-Protocol (Ethernet/FC) Storage Switches: Edge switches used to consolidate server cabling at the top of a data
center rack to Ethernet LANs, NAS, iSCSI SANs and FCoE SANs.
• Network Performance Management: Products that enable you to quickly detect, diagnose, and resolve network performance
problems & outages.
• Open Networking Switch (Bare Metal Switch): Commercially-available bare metal switches with choice of merchant switch
chip from Broadcom, Intel, or Mellanox; plus choice of merchant switch OS from Arista, Cumulus, Big Switch, or Pica8.
• Open Networking Switch OS: Merchant switch OS used on white box switches.
• Packet Capture Appliances: Packet capture and network recording appliances which include hardware and software.
• SDN / Network Virtualization: allows IT managers to consolidate multiple physical networks, divide a network into multiple
segments or create software-only networks between virtual machines (VMs) or containers.
• Software ADC: Software that helps web server performance by performing compression, cache, connection multiplexing,
application layer security, SSL offload, and content switching; combined with basic server load balancing. Servers running ADC
software is usually placed between the firewall/router and the web farm.
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12. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
12
Summary Analysis
• Cisco Dominates IT Pro Voting for Ethernet Switches
– 400G is a major technology inflection point for Ethernet switching. Cisco dominated voting for brand
leadership in this category, as well as for 25-100G switches and for Multi-Protocol Storage Switches.
• VMware Establishes Early Incumbency in Network Virtualization
– We conducted a survey for network virtualization for the first time in 2019. VMware and its NSX
network virtualization product was chosen by IT pros as the leader in all six brand leader categories.
• Broadcom the New Brand Leader for Fibre Channel
– Fibre Channel sales are still going strong and Broadcom, through their acquisitions of Brocade and
Emulex, was selected by IT pros as the leader for FC switches and HBAs. This is the first time IT pros
voted for the Emulex brand over the QLogic brand from (now from Marvell).
• F5 Unseats Citrix as Software and Hardware ADC Brand Leader
– Citrix has been a perennial leader in IT brand leader surveys for HW and SW ADCs. In 2019, F5
unseated Citrix in all six brand categories for both types of product.
• Dell EMC and Big Switch Chosen for Open Switching
– Dell EMC repeated as brand leader for open switches while Big Switch was selected over Cumulus for
the first time in the last 3 years the category has been covered.
• SolarWinds and Riverbed Repeat for Network Performance Management and Packet Capture
Appliances
– Perennial winners in these product categories, SolarWinds and Riverbed again won outright, or tied for
first in almost every category of brand leadership.
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13. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
100-400Gb Ethernet Switches
13
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Cisco Juniper Arista Mellanox Huawei Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for 100-400Gb Ethernet
Switches?

14. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
25-100Gb Ethernet Adapters
14
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Mellanox Broadcom Intel Cisco Cavium/QLogic Chelsio Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for 25-100Gb Ethernet
Adapters?

15. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
25-100Gb Ethernet Switches
15
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Cisco Dell Juniper Mellanox Arista Extreme Huawei Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for 25-100Gb Ethernet
Switches?

16. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Fibre Channel HBAs
16
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Broadcom/Emulex Marvell/QLogic ATTO Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Fibre Channel HBAs?

17. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Fibre Channel Switches
17
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Broadcom/Brocade Cisco Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Fibre Channel Switches?

18. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Hardware Application Delivery
Controllers
18
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
F5 Citrix Barracuda
Networks
Fortinet Kemp
Technologies
A10
Networks
Array
Networks
Radware Sangfor Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Hardware Application
Delivery Controllers?

19. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Multi-Protocol (Ethernet/FC) Storage
Switches
19
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Cisco Dell EMC Extreme
Networks/
Avaya/Brocade
HPE Juniper Nokia/
Alcatel-Lucent
Huawei Arista ZTE Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Multi-Protocol (Ethernet/FC)
Storage Switches?

20. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Network Performance Management
20
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
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Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Network Performance
Management?

21. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Open Networking Switch
(Bare Metal Switch)
21
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Dell EMC HPE D-Link Alpha Networks Accton/Edge-Core Quanta QCT Penguin
Computing
Interface Masters Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Open Networking Switch
(Bare Metal Switch)?

22. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Open Networking Switch OS
22
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Big Switch -
Switch Light OS
Arista - EOS Cumulus -
Cumulus Linux
Pluribus Pica8 - PicOS Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Open Networking Switch
OS?

23. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Packet Capture Appliances
23
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Riverbed NetShark NetScout Infinistream Solarflare SolarCapture Viavi/Network
Instruments
Endace EndaceProbe Savvius Omnipliance Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Packet Capture
Appliances?

24. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
SDN / Network Virtualization
24
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
VMware Cisco Juniper Arista Huawei Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for SDN / Network
Virtualization?

25. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
Software ADC
25
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
F5 Citrix Fortinet A10 Networks Array
Networks
Barracuda
Networks
NGINX HAProxy
Technologies
Kemp
Technologies
Other
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Software ADC?

26. January 2019 Brand Leader Survey
About the Author
26
Samantha Griffin is a Manager of Brand Leader
Research at IT Brand Pulse.
Samantha.griffin@itbrandpulse.com