Global Direct Attach Cable Market 2022-2028

Global Direct Attach Cable Market 2022-2028

Global Direct Attach Cable Market Size, Share, & Analysis by Product Type (Direct Attach Copper Cables, and Active Optical Cables), by Form Factor (QSFP, SFP, CXP, CFP, and CDFP), and by End-User (Networking, Telecommunications, Data Storage, High-Performance Computing (HPC) Centers, and Others) Forecast Period (2022-2028)

Market Overview

The global direct attach cable market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 18.4% during the forecast period (2022-2028). The market was valued at $4.5 billion in 2021 and is estimated to reach $14.5 billion in 2028. Driven by the demand for higher speed fiber cables, network cabling has gone through enormous shifts over the years. Breakthroughs in both existing and new technologies, including the rise of 5G technology, the Internet of Things, and big data, will drive significant data traffic growth and contribute to increasing demand for data center capacity, which creates demand for high-speed cables such as direct attach copper cables and active optics cables. Data center cables’ transition from 100 Gbps high-speed data cables to the new generation of 400/800 Gbps cables is driving future industry growth.

The increasing adoption of cloud-based services, owing to their flexibility and cost-effectiveness, is boosting demand for data center colocation. Companies are adopting colocation services to enhance the flexibility and scalability of their businesses’ efficiency and effectiveness. Moreover, the deployment of an infrastructure facility involves a high cost, enterprises are adopting data center colocation services. Due to these benefits, data center colocation is being significantly preferred in several application sectors, such as banking, financial services, insurance (BFSI), government, and aerospace and defense.

Some Recent Accomplishments in the Data Center Industry

● In October 2022, Equinix, Inc. announced its expansion to Indonesia with plans for an approximately $74.0 million International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Jakarta. The facility is scheduled to open by the second half of 2028 and is expected to provide more than 1,600 cabinets and more than 5,300 square meters of colocation space when fully built.

● In April 2022, Google invested $9.5 billion to expand 23 offices and 14 data centers in Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Nevada, Colorado, California, Oregon, and Washington.

● In March 2022, Microsoft announced plans to build a new data center region in southern Finland. To support customer needs for high availability and resilience, the new data center region will feature Azure Availability Zones, unique physical locations equipped with independent power, networking, and cooling for additional tolerance to data center failures.

Segmental Overview

The global data attach cables market is segmented based on product type, which includes direct attach copper cables and active optics cables. Active optics cables held the highest market share of 61.0% and accounted for $2.7 billion in 2021, which is anticipated to reach $11.4 billion in 2028, growing at the highest CAGR of 22.7% during the forecast period. Active optics cables are highly deployed in data centers for faster and more efficient transmission. The market for active optics cables is driven by increased bandwidth requirements and hyper-scale data center deployment. The advantages of active optics cables include longer link distances, less complex physical cabling, and an active digital high-speed electrical interface facing the host ASIC. Target applications of active optics cables include LAN Ethernet, InfiniBand, OmniPath, and proprietary interconnect networks.

Based on the form factor, the market is segmented into QSFP, SFP, CXP, Cx4, CFP, and CDFP. QSFP held the highest market share of 31.0% and accounted for $1.4 billion in 2021, which is anticipated to reach $5.0 billion in 2028, growing at the highest CAGR of 20.1% during the forecast period. QSFP form is widely used owing to lesser cost and lower power consumption. QSFP is a compact, hot-pluggable transceiver ideal for switches, servers, routers, and other high-end networking equipment used for data communications applications. It combines four full-duplex 10 Gbps SFP+ lanes for an aggregated 40 Gbps rate and supports multi-platform interfaces such as 40 Gb Ethernet, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, and PCIe.

Based on end-user, the market is segmented based on networking, telecommunications, data storage, HPC centers, and others. Telecommunication held the highest market share of 36.0% and accounted for $1.6 billion in 2021, which is anticipated to reach $5.3 billion in 2028, growing at the highest CAGR of 18.7% during the forecast period. Increasing internet and mobile phone penetration are contributing to the highest share of telecommunications among end users. In this sector, direct attach cables are used mainly for telecommunications via transmission lines, multiplexers, and base transceiver stations. Further, growing demand from the largest telecommunication companies, such as AT&T, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom, NTT, China Mobile, Comcast, and China Telecom, among others, is contributing to the market’s growth during the forecast period.

Regional Overview

Geographically, North America held the highest market share of 41.2% in 2021. The market value in North America was $1.8 billion in 2021 and is estimated to reach $6.1 billion in 2028, growing at a CAGR of 18.7% during the forecast period. Growing data in the US creates demand for data centers, which is also contributing to the growth of the market. In addition, the well-developed IT infrastructure in the region is strengthening the growth of the market in the region. Asia-Pacific is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR of 21.3% during the forecast period. The market’s growth is driven by rapid business digitalization and a substantial digital-savvy population. With major cloud service providers, such as Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Alibaba Cloud, launching cloud regions, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach $3.8 billion by 2028.

Company Overview

The key players in the market include Arista Networks, Inc., 3M Company, TE Connectivity, The Siemon Company, Cisco Systems, Inc., Eaton Corporation, and Hitachi, Ltd., among others. The market players have adopted several strategies, such as mergers and acquisitions, product launches, geographical expansion, partnerships, and collaborations, to expand their market share across the globe. Geographical expansion and acquisition are the most adopted strategies by the market players. Through these strategies, the companies have expanded their geographical presence in different regions and, hence, strengthened their customer base.