Tight battle for 2nd place after Cisco in enterprise n/w infra scorecard:Infonetics

CAMPBELL, USA:Market research firm Infonetics Research today released excerpts from its 2014 Enterprise Networking and Communication Equipment Vendor Scorecard, which profiles, analyzes, and ranks the 7 leading vendors of enterprise networking, network security, and communication equipment and software worldwide: Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Brocade, Cisco, HP, Juniper, and NEC.

The only report of its kind, Infonetics' scorecard evaluates vendors on criteria using actual data and metrics, such as direct feedback from buyers, vendor market share, share momentum, financials, and solution portfolio. This approach eliminates subjective scoring and ensures vendors are assessed accurately and fairly.

ANALYST NOTE

"Cisco dominates the enterprise networking and communication market by a wide margin, due to offering the broadest solution portfolio, receiving positive feedback from enterprises, and capturing significant market share. The battle for second place is raging between Brocade, HP, and Juniper, and each has unique strengths: Brocade has the strongest financials, HP is growing the fastest, and Juniper has experienced the highest improvement in enterprise feedback," notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research and lead author of the report.

ENTERPRISE SCORECARD HIGHLIGHTS

. The enterprise networking and communication infrastructure market is highly fragmented, with well over 100 vendors vying for a piece of this US$50 billion market

. Repeating its performance in last year's scorecard, Cisco once again earned the highest overall score by far, attaining perfect scores in 6 of 7 criteria and even improving on market share momentum

. The battle for 2nd place heated up this year, with Brocade holding on to the #2 spot again thanks to its strong financials, and is followed very closely by HP and Juniper

. HP captured the #1 position for market share momentum

. Juniper ranks among the top 3 vendors for 5 of Infonetics' scorecard criteria: market share momentum, financials, product reliability, technology innovation, and service and support

. NEC's #1 position in Japan's enterprise telephony market helped place it 5th in Infonetics' 2014 scorecard