Omdia – a technology research powerhouse that now includes the former IHS Markit Technology – has once again ranked Cisco #1 in market share for the industrial networking market. The publication, Industrial Edge Networking Components Report, 2020, makes it clear that in calendar year 2019, Cisco continued to lead the market for industrial edge networking components, with 50 percent market share for wireless access points, 45 percent for industrial routers, 33 percent for managed Layer 3 switches and 22 percent for managed Layer 2 switches.
The report also notes, “Cisco is enjoying the highest growth among the leading companies.”
Rather than simply sharing this accolade, I’d like to explore the “whys” behind our growth and market leadership. I think our top ranking comes down to these three differentiators.
- The right hardware and software
By nature, IoT deployments dramatically increase the volume of devices being connected, which not only increases the threat surface but also the complexity of managing and securing them. Get the network right – with optimal security, scalability and simplicity – and an IoT project is positioned for to succeed.
As our #1 ranking attests, there’s a reason so many business leaders choose Cisco when designing their industrial networks. For more than 30 years, we’ve been the trusted leader in networking; today, we are also the largest enterprise security vendor in the world. Our IoT portfolio is based our industry-leading networking and security capabilities – so we can offer a complete and diverse set of products for virtually any location, need or deployment scenario.
And we never stop improving our portfolio. Cisco hardware spans switches, routers, gateways, and access points with best-in-class networking features, industrial protocol interoperability, and the right form factor and design for different deployment scenarios. Our software includes a wealth of products to support every IoT deployment from networking configuration to security to data management.
- Programmability and automation
The second driver of our growth and leadership is our use of Industrial NetDevOps to empower customers to scale the Cisco IoT portfolio with programmability and automation. Industrial NetDevOps takes advantage of IT and OT working together using automation to save time and costs and enable automated IT network services for operations professionals. It also makes it possible to get real-time data about the health of an industrial network and the devices that run on it.
- Tested-and-tried architectures
We don’t just make great products; we also ensure that our products work great together! We have built a series of reference architectures for various industries. These architectures are tested and validated to help ensure the success of customer deployments. They help eliminate guesswork and accelerate implementation – so an industrial network can start delivering value more quickly and reliably.
There’s no doubt that we’re proud of this latest recognition (and others, including a Global Leadership Award from Frost & Sullivan, an Interop Best in Show recognition and an IoT Breakthrough Award). But we promise not to rest on our laurels. As the roundup above suggests, we will keep pursuing new and better ways of meeting our customers’ industrial networking needs. Let us know how we can help you.
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