Crehan Research released its fourth quarter Server-class Adapter and LAN-on-Motherboard (LOM) report and its findings show 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) entering the next major stage of volume adoption. 

With Web 2.0 sites, the public cloud and data center companies deploying 10GbE servers and server-access data center switches, it is no wonder why there have been significant changes to the market. Vendors in the cloud segment are likely to gain market share. The confluence of high-bandwidth applications, technology maturity and competitive pricing are now leading to increased deployments. Some cloud providers are able to build their own custom solutions, which may dilute the potential market impact, however, data centers can be so large that even a single customer deployment can have a noticeable market impact.

Crehan Research president Seamus Crehan says that although there is some overlap in terms of timelines and segments, he believes that 10GbE server networking is on its way.

"We are in the second of three major adoption stages. Each stage has distinct characteristics, resulting in correspondingly different and significant market changes and vendor impact," said Crehan.

The first stage, according to Crehan, happens in the 2009 through 2013 time frame and involves blade servers. The second stage, which he considers to be the current one, involves public cloud and massively scalable data-center companies. The final portion, he says, is characterized by the upgrading of the traditional enterprise segment's large install base of rack and tower server ports from 1Gbe to 10GbE. Crehan believes this stage will gain traction in the coming year, and predicts strong growth for 10GBASE-T technology, noting that this stage will offer the largest server-access port and revenue opportunity.

Crehan expects that server networking bandwidth will see a five-fold increase over the next five years as we move through these upgrade stages.