The 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey covers 12 networking products. This report includes the results of IT Pro voting for six categories of brand leadership for each service: Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Innovation, and Service & Support.

1. 2020 IT Brand Leader Survey Report
Networking Products

2. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Networking Brand Leader Survey Report
The 2020 Networking brand leader surveys cover 12 Networking
products.
This report includes the results of voting for six categories of brand
leadership for each service: Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation and Service & Support.
Numerical survey data is available upon request. Please contact us at
info@itbrandpulse.com.
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3. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
2020 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
2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey Winners Chart 10
Product Category Definitions 11
Summary Analysis 12
100-400Gb Ethernet Switches 2020 Brand Leader Chart 13
25-100Gb Ethernet Adapters 2020 Brand Leader Chart 14
25-100Gb Ethernet Switches 2020 Brand Leader Chart 15
Fibre Channel HBAs 2020 Brand Leader Chart 16
Fibre Channel Switches 2020 Brand Leader Chart 17
Hardware Application Delivery Controllers 2020 Brand Leader Chart 18
Network Performance Management 2020 Brand Leader Chart 19
Networking as-a-Service 2020 Brand Leader Chart 20
Open Networking Switch (Bare Metal Switch) 2020 Brand Leader Chart 21
Open Networking Switch OS 2020 Brand Leader Chart 22
Packet Capture Appliances 2020 Brand Leader Chart 23
Software ADC 2020 Brand Leader Chart 24
About the Author 25
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4. 2020 Networking 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 March, 2020.
– 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.
– 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> innovation leader?
6. Who do you perceive as the <product category> service & support leader?
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4
Networking
Brand Leader Survey Methodology

5. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Brand Leader Definitions
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6. 2020 IT Brand Leader Survey Report
Respondent Profiles

7. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Respondent Title/Job Description:
Data Center Manager
VAR/OEM
Storage Administrator/Architect
Security Administrator/Architect
Executive/Management
Network Administrator/Architect
Server Administrator/Architect
Other
IT Manager/Director
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8. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Your environment is best described as:
Public Cloud/Data Center Provider
High-Performance Computing Data Center
Product Development
Other
Small-Medium Business Data Center
Enterprise Data Center
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9. 2020 IT Brand Leader Survey Report
Survey Results

10. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
2020
Networking
Brand Leaders
Voted by IT Pros
100-400Gb Ethernet Switches Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco
25-100Gb Ethernet Adapters Mellanox Mellanox 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 Cisco Broadcom/Brocade Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco
Hardware Application Delivery
Controllers
F5 Citrix F5 F5 F5 F5
Network Performance
Management
Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco
On-Prem Networking as-a-
Service
Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco
Open Networking Switch
(Bare Metal Switch)
Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC
Open Networking Switch OS Arista Arista Arista Big Switch Arista Arista
Packet Capture Appliances Riverbed Riverbed Riverbed Riverbed Riverbed Riverbed
Software ADC Citrix Citrix Citrix Citrix Citrix Citrix

11. 2020 Networking 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.
• Network Performance Management: Products that enable you to quickly detect, diagnose, and resolve network
performance problems & outages.
• Networking as-a-Service: Networking hardware, software and service consumed with a subscription with at least some of
the payments based on usage.
• 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.
• 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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
12
Summary Analysis
• Cisco Selected as Market Leader in First Annual Survey Covering On-Prem Networking-as-a-Service
– In a nascent category that is expected to explode with growth. Cisco swept voting in all six categories of brand leadership.
• 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 for the second year in a row. The company also dominated IT pro voting for volume 25-100G
switches.
• Mellanox selected as Market Leader for Ethernet Adapters
– Intel seized market leadership in 10Gb Ethernet Adapters years ago. However, Mellanox is the IT Pro favorite for
25-100Gb NICs.
• Cisco the New Brand Leader for Fibre Channel Switches
– Cisco emerges as the Fibre Channel switch brand leader in conjunction with a dramatic decrease in marketing of
Brocade switches, now from Broadcom. Broadcom (Emulex) was selected by IT pros as the leader for FC HBAs as
the QLogic brand from (now from Marvell) fades away.
• F5 Unseats Citrix as Software and Hardware ADC Brand Leader
– Citrix bounced back to be selected as the software ADC market leader over F5.
• Dell EMC and Arista for Open Switching
– Dell EMC repeated as brand leader for open switches while Arista was selected as the market leader for open
switching OS.
• Cisco voted Market Leader for Network Performance Management
– IT pros chose Cisco over perennial winner SolarWinds.
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13. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
100-400Gb Ethernet Switches
13
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
Cisco Juniper Arista Huawei Mellanox
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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
25-100Gb Ethernet Adapters
14
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
Mellanox Broadcom Intel Marvell/QLogic Chelsio
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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
25-100Gb Ethernet Switches
15
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
Cisco Juniper Dell Arista Huawei HPE Extreme Mellanox
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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Fibre Channel HBAs
16
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
Broadcom/Emulex Marvell/QLogic ATTO
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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Fibre Channel Switches
17
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
Cisco Broadcom/Brocade
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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Hardware Application Delivery Controllers
18
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
F5 Citrix Barracuda
Networks
Fortinet Array
Networks
A10
Networks
Radware Kemp
Technologies
Sangfor
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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Network Performance Management
19
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
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?

20. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
On-Prem Networking as-a-Service
20
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Cisco Open Pay Dell Technologies On
Demand
HPE Greenlake Lenovo TruScale
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for On-Prem Networking as-
a-Service?

21. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Open Networking Switch (Bare Metal Switch)
21
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Dell EMC HPE Alpha Networks Accton/Edge-Core Quanta QCT Penguin
Computing
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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Open Networking Switch OS
22
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
Arista - EOS Cumulus - Cumulus
Linux
Big Switch - Switch
Light OS
Pica8 - PicOS Pluribus
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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Packet Capture Appliances
23
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Riverbed NetShark NetScout Infinistream Viavi/Network
Instruments
Savvius Omnipliance Endace EndaceProbe
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. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
Software ADC
24
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
Citrix F5/NGINX Fortinet Barracuda
Networks
A10
Networks
Kemp
Technologies
Array
Networks
HAProxy
Technologies
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?

25. 2020 Networking Brand Leader Survey
About the Author
25
Samantha Griffin
Analyst & Manager, Brand Leader Research
Samantha.griffin@itbrandpulse.com
Harrison Griffin
Analyst & Account Manager
Harrison.griffin@itbrandpulse.com