Foundry Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced that it has catapulted into the number three position in the worldwide Carrier Ethernet Switch/Router (CESR) market, according to leading industry research firm Heavy Reading, the market research division of TechWeb's Light Reading. Worldwide sales of Carrier Ethernet Switch/Router platforms by Foundry have increased consistently and grown market share sequentially in every quarter over the last six quarters, according to the report. The report, which profiles 12 CESR vendors, shows demand for CESR platforms surged 26 percent year-over-year[1] through 1Q 2008, demonstrating significant demand for the technology. "Foundry Networks has demonstrated impressive growth in the Carrier Ethernet Switch/Router market in the last six quarters," said Stan Hubbard, senior analyst for Heavy Reading. "By the end of 1Q 2008, the company more than doubled their market share and revenue stream from Carrier Ethernet. Much of that growth is attributed to large carrier and service provider wins, including at least four top tier service providers, deploying its NetIron XMR/MLX routers and FastIron platforms as the integral part of metro and Internet core backbones." According to Heavy Reading's June 2008 report, CESR growth will be driven by a combination of overlapping factors, including: A transition from separate Packet over SONET/ SDH (POS), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), IP, and legacy Ethernet networks toward converged Ethernet/MPLS networks. Heavy Reading's research indicates CESR products are being strongly embraced to support Ethernet services worldwide. Upgrades from traditional Ethernet switches to higher-performance CESR platforms that enable operators to offer real-time enterprise services with Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. New Ethernet switch/ router builds related to the active triple-play/IP Television (IPTV)/ Video on Demand (VOD) market. Additional CESR deployments in support of mobile traffic backhaul, a market which is likely to emerge as a significant opportunity in coming quarters due to rising bandwidth requirements straining the current infrastructure. Foundry Networks has continued to generate a growing portion of its overall switch and router business from service providers in the beginning of 2008. The introduction of a variety of performance-leading CESR platforms during the past two years is helping drive carrier sales, which increased to 29 percent of overall revenue in the first quarter 2008. Foundry's service provider focus is anchored in a broad portfolio of advanced multiservice routers in the NetIron XMR Series and NetIron MLX Series, which are complemented by the performance-driven FastIron family of 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) switches for highly efficient delivery of services at the metro edge.