A spine-leaf, or leaf-spine, network structure consists of spine and leaf switches. A spine-leaf topology aids data center networks in lowering network latency and hop count while increasing network efficiency. This two-layer full-mesh network topology was created as an alternative to three-tier designs and is appropriate for current data centers with more east-west network traffic instead of north-south or switch-to-switch traffic. Within a data center, east-west traffic flow transports data packets from server to server. Spine and leaf architecture has several advantages over traditional architecture, including improved scalability, lower costs, low latency, higher redundancy, increased bandwidth, congestion avoidance, and energy efficiency.
Segments of the Market
The spine and leaf architecture switch market is segmented by product type and application. By product type, the market is segmented into leaf switch and spine switch. Further, the application market is segmented into telecommunication providers, servers and storage providers, and enterprise and industrial use.
Industry Demand and Market Drivers
According to OMR Research, the global spine and leaf architecture switch market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% during the forecast period (2023-2029). Factors such as data center expansion, increased business use of high-end cloud computing, and increased investment in data center applications are driving market development. According to CloudScene, there were almost 8,000 data centers globally as of January 2021. Six nations comprised the majority of data centers- the US (33% of total), the UK (5.7%), Germany (5.5%), China (5.2%), Canada (3.3%), and the Netherlands (3.4%). Furthermore, an increase in the adoption of Internet of Things and hybrid and multi-cloud architecture solutions is expected to provide a profitable opportunity for market growth throughout the forecast period. Another change is that the number of data sources for the organization is continually rising. Enterprises are installing linked endpoints not only on production lines but also across their facilities for logistics and transportation, employee safety, and a variety of other purposes. Greater mobile connection via 4G/5G/6G and IoT networks will certainly accelerate this trend, contributing even more to the growing data load and resulting in high demand for data centers as well as spine and leaf architecture switches.
Recent Developments
Arista Networks, Inc., CISCO Systems, Inc., DELL Inc., D-Link Corporation, HCL Technologies Ltd., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Aruba Networks, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Juniper Networks, Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd., Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc., Netgear, Inc., Networks, Inc., H3C Technologies Co., Ltd., NVIDIA, Ruijie Networks Co., Ltd., Tenda Technology Inc., ZTE Corp., and other companies are contributing to the market’s growth through various mergers, collaborations, and investment activities. Some of the recent activities that boosted the market growth include-
• In December 2022, Arista Networks, a pioneer in data-driven networking, announced the extension of its extensively deployed 7050X4 Series, which provides enterprise computing and storage, colocation providers, and managed service providers with longevity and investment protection (MSPs). In addition to the new 7050X4 Series, Arista announced the addition of 800G to the 7060X5 Series, which doubles the hyperscale backbones' capacity while lowering space and power per gigabit. The new Arista 7060X5 and 7050X4 Series fixed leaf and spine switches are centered on Broadcom Trident4 and Tomahawk4 chipsets, which run EOS for rich automation and visibility at speeds ranging from 10Gbps to 800Gbps, to satisfy the essential needs of modern business and hyperscale cloud networks:
• In August 2022, Jazz chose Juniper Networks to build a next-generation data center network to serve its service delivery platform. The new data center consists of a spine and leaf infrastructure developed with Juniper Networks QFX Series Switches and is completely integrated with the Juniper Apstra System.
• In July 2022, Juniper Networks, a pioneer in secure, AI-powered networks, announced that it had been chosen by Oil India Limited, the country's second-biggest state-owned oil and gas firm, to modernize its data centers and campus networks. Oil India will be able to automate essential business and operational operations with a flexible and high-performance Juniper IP fabric, enhancing corporate agility and providing more seamless customer experiences. Juniper's QFX5120 Series Switches were installed at the data centers at Oil India's base in Duliajan, Assam, where a mix of QFX5120 and QFX5110 Switches serves as a robust campus core. For its campus distribution layer, Oil India chose EX4300 Series Switches and a spine-leaf architecture with EVPN-VXLAN for the campus core.