Commoditization of IT, moving to more standardized components is a force that affects every product line across the industry.  Looking at the details of any server or storage device will show the impact that Intel has had.  Network switches have specialized chip designs that differ from processors, but face the same competitive pressures of creating new generations of products at a lower cost with more functionality.  The move to standard switch components has moved significantly over the last decade and is creating a shift in the economics of the switch market.  Specifically, hardware value is flowing from the switch vendors (Cisco) to suppliers of switch silicon (Marvell, Broadcom, QLogic).  The implication is that to maintain margins, switch manufacturers will need to look for alternative value streams.