China tops enterprise networking spending in APAC

NEW DELHI, INDIA: China tops public sector enterprise networking equipment spending in Asia Pacific, says Springboard Research, an IT market research and advisory firm.

Its latest research report titled “An Opportunity Emerging: Networking in the Public Sector,” which was released recently, stated that the greater China region (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) contributed the largest share at 42.7 per cent to enterprise networking spending by the public sector across Asia Pacific (excluding Japan).

The report named ANZ region (Australia and New Zealand) as the second largest public sector market, with India as the fastest growing in the APAC region.

Springboard estimates the overall market for enterprise networking equipment in the public sector (including government and education) to have reached US$1.1 billion at the end of 2008; with a forecasted growth to US$1.7 billion by 2012, amounting to a compounded annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12 per cent, said a press release.

“A major trend in the region’s public sector vertical is cross-department collaboration; state or local governments are aggressively deploying networking framework to facilitate connectivity with other states and regions,” said Nupur Singh Andley, senior research analyst for Connectivity at Springboard Research.

He added that the focus of networking investments, especially in developing markets like China and India, has shifted to semi-urban and rural pockets where even the most basic network infrastructure is not present.

According to the findings of a survey of public sector IT decision makers featured in the report, over a fifth of respondents claim that their budgets for networking are more than 40 per cent of overall IT budgets. This trend was more prevalent in China over other regions.

The survey also revealed that the main factors influencing network purchasing decisions by the respondents were equipment provider’s expertise, technological strength and value for money (in that order), the release said.

“A massive push for nationwide e-governance initiatives by several countries in Asia Pacific has created the single biggest opportunity for enterprise networking equipment providers operating in the public sector vertical,” Andley said.

The survey respondents rated Cisco as the top enterprise networking player in top-of-mind recall, as well as their existing equipment provider in all the three categories of data networking equipment, voice networking equipment and network security equipment.

The other prominent players named by the respondents include HP-Procurve, Avaya, Juniper Networks, Nortel Networks, D-Link, Alcatel-Lucent and Checkpoint, the release added.