According to Infonetics Research, 2007 was a banner year for networking. Service provider router and switch sales hit an all time high of $11.2 billion in 2007 which is an increase of 16 percent over the 2006 sales figures.

2007 was also a big year for Juniper Networks, pulling ahead of Alcatel-Lucent, to take the number two spot globally for service providers routers and switches.  Networking goliath Cisco (as always) holds down the top spot overall though.

Infonetics reported that on a year over year basis, Cisco's router and switch sales were up by 20 percent while Juniper's were up by 25 percent. 

In my opinion, it's important to note that Juniper did not have a switch business in 2007, their new EX line of switches just debuted this year so it will be interesting to see what impact they might have on Juniper's overall share.

"The common drivers pushing the carrier router and switch market upward are 1) the ongoing migration to next generation networks based on IP, MPLS, and Ethernet, and 2) growth in consumer broadband, corporate, IP video, and mobile data traffic," said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics in a statement.