IDC's Datacenter Networks service combines a strategic view of emerging datacenter requirements with extensive analysis of the network hardware and software infrastructure within enterprise and service provider datacenters needed to meet customer demands. The network is on a course to deliver a broad base of services to the datacenter and will scale to support the transactions and interactions of a global network. IDC believes that success can be tracked to those organizations that have a unique understanding of best practices required for each place in the network. This service provides a comprehensive view of the key technical and business issues driving network migrations in the datacenter and the remote branch.

This service covers the following segments of the datacenter networking market:

• Datacenter network infrastructure
• Application networking
• Remote branch network infrastructure
• Network virtualization

Throughout the year, this service will address the following topics:

• Application networking (e.g., datacenter switching, WAN application delivery, and emerging application networking products)
• Network and server optimization
• Key server, storage, and network partnerships
• Network spending in the datacenter
• Shifting datacenter network topologies
• Blade server impact on networking
• Voice, video, and Web 2.0 impact on datacenter networking
• Profiles of datacenter networking companies
• Remote branch networking trends
• Migration to a unified network
• Green networking
• Adoption of FCoE
• Adoption of server, storage, and network interconnects in the datacenter (e.g., Fibre Channel, 10GbE, InfiniBand)

Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

1. What are the greatest growth opportunities for network infrastructure vendors to build dynamic datacenters for the enterprise?
2. How will datacenter consolidation and dense computing influence network infrastructure requirements?
3. What is the opportunity for Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet sales within server clusters?
4. How will the supplier landscape evolve as customers deploy application networking?
5. How will branch networking evolve?
6. How is WAN application delivery providing business value to the enterprise?
7. What role will the network play in storage and server virtualization?

IDC's Datacenter Networks service examines how equipment and software suppliers are positioning themselves to compete in the datacenter networking market. This service reviews the strategies, market positioning, and future direction of several providers in the networking market, including:

3Com, Akamai, Alcatel Lucent, Allot, Arastra, A10 Networks, AT&T, Aviva, Blade Network Technologies, Blue Coat, Brocade, Certeon, Cisco Systems, Citrix, Dell, EMC, Emulex, Exinda, Expand, Extreme Networks, F5 Networks, Force10, Foundry Networks, HP, IBM, Intel, Juniper, Microsoft, Mellonox, Network Appliance, Nokia, Nokia Siemens, Nortel, Oracle, QLogic, Qwest, Radware, Riverbed, Silver Peak, Stratacache, Sun Microsystems, Verizon, VMware, Voltaire, and WovenSystems.

This service focuses on the following core research. In addition to the insight provided in this service, IDC may conduct additional research on specific topics, or emerging market segments, via research offerings that require additional IDC funding and client investment.

This study provides a worldwide forecast and analysis of application networking markets. It discusses key trends in deploying resilient, secure, and optimized datacenter applications.

This study provides a worldwide forecast and analysis of networking equipment spending in enterprise and service provider datacenters.

This study provides a worldwide forecast and analysis of network equipment spending in the enterprise remote office. It discusses the requirements for a globally consistent end-to-end services architecture from datacenter to branch.

These studies are real-world examples of how enterprises and service providers are employing application-aware networking technology and services.

The migration to next-generation IT datacenter architectures is well under way. Driven by the need for a dynamic IT environment that is responsive to business change, the datacenter network architecture is changing. This change has the potential to dramatically alter the network equipment market away from IT-specific networks to a unifying network technology in the datacenter.

IDC offers a complete market intelligence solution customized to meet your business requirements. The array of products and services available to you includes:

• The opportunity to have your specific questions answered through personal interaction with industry experts who cover the topics and markets in your service
• Around-the-clock access to our market intelligence on idc.com, IDC's personalized Web experience
• A view of the market's future with 12 months of continuous intelligence about its direction and the reasons behind it, along with actionable advice for taking advantage of existing and emerging opportunities
• Special client discount pricing on purchases of research from other services
• Complimentary admission to IDC's annual Directions conference, where you'll hear our latest forecasts and network with IDC analysts and other industry professionals
• Complimentary invitations to monthly executive telebriefings, interactive forums designed to provide you with insights about research and strategies directly from IDC analysts

To find out how our flexible packaging options can meet your specific business needs, please contact your IDC sales executive.

As a privately held company, IDC believes that our customers are our primary constituency. A large percentage of every revenue dollar is reinvested back into our products, including more analysts, more geographic coverage, and extensive primary research.

Our steady growth over the past 10-plus years reflects our commitment to investing in our customers.