Servers (Global Market)

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Open servers

White Paper: Open Source Hardware (OSHW)

2023

The volume of the global market for powerful servers grew by 11% over the year and reached $20.4 billion

At the end of 2023, the global market for powerful servers for high-performance computing (LDCs) reached $20.4 billion. This is 11% more compared to the result for 2022, when the costs in this area were estimated at $18.4 billion. One of the main drivers of the industry is the rapid introduction of artificial intelligence, as stated in a study by Hyperion Research, the results of which TAdviser got acquainted with in early September 2024.

The authors of the report divide the market into two key segments: LDC servers and systems focused specifically on AI loads. Solutions of the first type in 2023 accounted for about $15 billion, the second - about $5.5 billion. For comparison: a year earlier, expenses amounted to $15.4 billion and $3 billion, respectively. It is noted that the demand for servers equipped with GPU-based accelerators (GPUs) or specialized AI accelerators is growing rapidly. Such machines are used to work with large language models (LLM), for infantry, etc. LDC systems are actively purchased by companies around the world.

It is said that servers focused on AI loads can be supplied by unconventional hardware manufacturers such as Nvidia, Cerebras, SambaNova, etc. Such computing complexes are often located on corporate customer sites, providing the ability to locally process AI loads.

Since AI integrates into traditional HPC workflows, and systems of this class are purchased to introduce AI into enterprise data center applications, there has been a significant increase in the number of new buyers and new suppliers that have entered the HPC market, says Earl Joseph, CEO of Hyperion Research.

Hyperion Research uses the terms "technical computing" and "high performance computing" (HPC) to cover the entire market of computer servers used by scientists, engineers, analysts, etc. Local systems, mainly used for HPC workloads, are considered as traditional LDC platforms. This segment also includes AI-focused servers used by traditional HPC end users and commonly sold by traditional server vendors. In turn, technical computing, in addition to scientific and engineering applications, includes related areas such as economic analysis, financial analysis, animation, server games, digital content creation and management, business analytics, and database applications.

The Hyperion Research study says that the powerful server industry will grow steadily in the future. In 2024, sales are expected at $24.8 billion - plus 22% compared to 2023. At the same time, LDC servers will bring about $17.9 billion, and systems specifically focused on AI loads - $6.9 billion. In general, the CAGR (average annual growth rate in complex percentages) from 2023 to 2028 is expected at 14.3%. As a result, by the end of this period, the global market for powerful servers will increase to $39.8 billion. In total sales, traditional LDC servers will provide $26.2 billion, systems for AI tasks - about $13.6 billion.

It is emphasized that the ongoing active introduction of AI in all areas will stimulate sales of high-performance equipment. Such complexes are in demand in various scientific, engineering and research applications that require large computing power.^[1]

Reduced server shipments by 6% to 13.4 million

In 2023, deliveries of servers of all types on a global scale amounted to approximately 13.4 million units. This is 6% less than the result for the previous year. Such data are given in a study by TrendForce, the results of which were published on February 29, 2024.

If we consider the industry in monetary terms, then its volume, according to IDC estimates, reached $128.36 billion in 2023, which is 4.2% more compared to 2022, when costs were estimated at $123.22 billion. The growth is primarily due to the fact that data center operators and cloud platforms have begun to purchase more expensive servers with powerful GPU-based accelerators to support the demanding workloads associated with artificial intelligence.

IDC notes that in the segment of servers with x86 architecture, costs in 2023 amounted to approximately $112.53 billion: this is 1.4% more compared to 2022, when sales were $110.96 billion. The server sector on other hardware architectures recorded an annualized growth of 29% - from $12.27 billion to $15.83 billion. Thus, systems equipped with Arm processors that have high energy efficiency are gaining popularity.

TrendForce analysts believe that server deliveries in 2024 will rise by 2% compared to 2023 and will be at around 13.7 million units. The share of AI servers in the total volume of shipments is estimated at 12.1%. Overall, sales of AI systems are expected to remain stable in 2024 - mainly due to orders from North American cloud data centers. However, in China, the segment may face difficulties due to tough US sanctions.^[2]

The global server market collapsed by 20%

At the end of 2023, world server deliveries in unit terms fell by 20% compared to the previous year. At the same time, revenue from their implementation rose on an annualized basis by about 6-8%. Such indicators are reflected in a study by Omdia, the results of which were published at the end of November 2023.

It is noted that data centers around the world are undergoing changes, which is due to the rapid development of machine learning tools and artificial intelligence applications. In addition, data center operators are increasingly subject to environmental requirements. Hyperscalers implement more efficient liquid cooling systems and take other measures to reduce energy costs. At the same time, there is a growing demand for servers equipped with specialized accelerators to improve performance in certain tasks related to AI: the use of such chips reduces the load on central processors, but leads to an increase in the cost of equipment. Omdia calls the observed trend hyperheterogenic computing.

Given the transformation of the data center industry, various startups bring accelerators to the market for information, processing large language models, accelerating network functions, etc. Additional coprocessors for AI tasks use large cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services (AWS). And Meta (recognized as an extremist organization; activities in the Russian Federation are prohibited) uses MSVP (Meta Scalable Video Processor) chips in its servers, which are created specifically to speed up operations related to video processing. Google, in turn, applies special Video Coding Units (VCUs).

Omdia estimates that the development of the concept of hyperheterogenic computing will lead to the fact that by 2027, central processors and specialized coprocessors will account for more than 30% of data center spending on equipment, compared with less than 20% a decade earlier. In the segment of servers with graphics chip-based accelerators (GPUs) in 2023, the largest customers are Microsoft and Meta, which together purchased more than 150,000 Nvidia H100 products. For comparison, Google, Amazon and Oracle purchased about three times as many of these accelerators. Demand for GPU solutions from cloud hyperscalers is so high that server providers such as Dell Technologies, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Lenovo Group are not able to fulfill corporate customer orders for systems with Nvidia H100 chips. Waiting times for buyers stretch for 36-52 weeks: in other words, it can take about a year from the moment the application is submitted to the actual shipment of servers.

As demand for high-performance systems with specialized coprocessors increases, data center operators are forced to spend more money on power and cooling infrastructure. In particular, the cost of rack power distribution in the first half of 2023 increased by 17% compared to the same period of the previous year, and for cooling systems - by 7%. According to the results of 2023, Omdia notes, revenue in the segment of direct liquid cooling systems will rise by 80% compared to 2022. Analysts believe that total server costs will grow by 10% per year between 2023 and 2027, when they reach $195.6 billion.^[3]

2022

Global AI Server Market Growth by 8.5%

At the end of 2022, servers for processing artificial intelligence algorithms accounted for a little less than 1% of the total mass of shipped enterprise-class computing systems. Such data are contained in the TrendForce study, the results of which were published in early March 2023.

We are talking about AI platforms equipped with general-purpose graphics accelerators (GPGPU). The demand for such products is increasing amid the growing demand for large language models, generative AI services and other advanced applications. According to analysts, in 2022, approximately 66.2% of the total number of AI servers shipped fell on four leading North American cloud providers - Amazon (AWS), Google, Microsoft and Meta (recognized as an extremist organization; activities on the territory of the Russian Federation are prohibited).

If we consider the Chinese market, then in 2022 ByteDance became the largest customer of AI servers with a share of approximately 6.2% of global sales. Next come Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu with 2.3%, 1.5% and 1.5%, respectively.

From a technical point of view, server systems most often use Nvidia H100, A100 and A800 accelerators, as well as AMD MI250 and MI250X solutions to process AI algorithms. Moreover, the share of Nvidia in 2022 in this segment was about 80%, the share of AMD - the remaining 20%.

TrendForce also evaluated the supply of AI servers of all types: taking into account GPGPU models, solutions based on reprogrammable gate arrays (FPGA) and special-purpose integrated circuits (ASIC). Globally, approximately 855 thousand such systems were shipped in 2022, and growth compared to the previous year was recorded at about 8.5%.^[4][5]

2020

The global server market grew 3.3% to 12.12 million devices - IDC

The analytical company IDC estimated the volume of the global server market at the end of 2020 at 12.12 million delivered devices, which is 3.3% more than a year ago. The data were released in August 2021.

The top five server manufacturers (Dell Technologies, HPE, Inspur, Lenovo and Huawei) accounted for more than half of hardware sales in 2020 (see illustration below).

According to the researchers, the growth in server sales at the end of 2020 was expected, given the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic - because of it, people began to work and study more often from home, which led to a surge in demand for cloud services, and the owners of the latter were forced to increase server purchases to cope with the influx of users. This, in turn, led to the expansion of data center networks by the largest operators.

Experts consider the ever-increasing demand for security and storage technologies in key industries as another catalyst for market growth.

The largest server sales are in the IT and telecommunications industries, which are expected to maintain their leadership thanks to the wide penetration of smartphones, the growth of mobile traffic and the launch of 5G networks.

According to IDC, shipments of entry-level servers (volume server), to which specialists include systems worth up to $25 thousand, rose by 3.7% in 2020. In the mid-range equipment segment, the growth was 8.4%. In the category of the most expensive solutions, a reduction was recorded, it amounted to 21.8%.

According to the researchers, in 2020, the trend continued to introduce IT infrastructure management automation tools, that is, to build the infrastructure being built. Customers require rapid on-demand provisioning (launch of new business services, reallocation of resources across applications) and expect the infrastructure in their data centers to have the same level of flexibility as public clouds. At the same time, IT resource management tools must be unified, which ensures the construction of a hybrid cloud.

According to the estimates of the analytical company Mordor Intelligence, the volume of the global market for corporate-level servers in 2020 reached $84.22 billion. Experts did not specify the dynamics compared to 2019 and only noted that equipment sales increased due to the fact that companies needed resources for processing big data (Big Data), high-performance computing and business analytics.

The situation in the server market is largely determined by the investments of the owners of the so-called hyperscale data centers, the number of which reached 570 in 2020. Such data centers are owned by, Apple,, etc., the Google Facebook Amazon report says.

Another driver for the growth of the server market is associated with the development of technology and increased demand for high amounts of RAM.^[6]

Data Center Servers Market Reaches $45.8 Billion - ResearchAndMarket

The volume of the global market for servers installed in data centers at the end of 2020 amounted to $45.8 billion. Such data are provided in the analytical company ResearchAndMarket. They did not name the sales of equipment in 2019, but said that demand was growing.

According to experts, the key catalysts for the growth of the data center server market are:

• a surge in demand for cloud services amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, in which people began to work more and learn from home;
• increasing interest in IoT projects;
• Increasing use of unique client-centric solutions
• growing demand for information security management systems;
• development of technological innovations.

The active digitalization of the sphere, health care which was facilitated by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, also played an important role in the growth of demand servers for data centers. Thus, medical organizations are introducing online payment methods and - POS terminal for contactless transactions. To use an integrated platform that controls payment transactions, healthcare institutions are increasingly resorting to cloud-based POS solutions.

The largest manufacturers, including Mercedes-Benz and BMW, also make a certain contribution to the growth of the data center server market. They use sophisticated technologies like the Internet of Things and machine learning, which require computing resources to work.

Key players operating in the data center server market are focusing on launching new innovative solutions to strengthen their market position, the researchers said. They also offer supporting software solutions for remote server monitoring. For example, Lenovo sells servers that provide fast configuration, firmware, and remote server management using Intel Active Management Technology.

Analysts named the following companies as the leaders in the server market for data centers:

• Hewlett Packard Enterprise;
• Dell;
• IBM;
• Fujitsu;
• Cisco;
• Lenovo;
• Oracle;
• Huawei;
• Inspur;
• Atos;
• Hitachi;
• NEC;
• Super Micro Computer.

According to Digitimes Research experts, global server deliveries in 2020 increased by 7% and amounted to a little more than 16 million units. The study says that the market suffered in the first quarter of 2020, when the supply channels of various electronics were disrupted in China after the introduction of quarantine. In the second quarter, the situation returned to normal, giving hope for peak results in 2020, despite a slight decline in sales in the second half of the year.

The main catalysts of the server market in 2020 are associated with equipment orders from leading cloud providers, as well as with the supply of equipment by Chinese manufacturers in the context of the strategy implemented by the authorities to expand the local cloud infrastructure. In addition, the relatively small market size in 2019 affects.

Due to the fact that Intel and AMD intend to prepare mass deliveries of new generation server processors in the first half of 2021, Digitimes Research expects a wave of server replacement. This will help the global market maintain growth in 2021.

Chip developers including Intel, AMD and Nvidia are actively developing central (CPU) and graphics (GPU) processors to meet demand for high-performance computing, AI solutions and parallel computing, analysts said.

Nvidia's plans to acquire British semiconductor technology developer ARM are expected to allow the US company to deploy AI acceleration solutions that combine ARM architecture CPUs with GPUs and high-speed InfiniBand networking technology, as well as increase the share of ARM chips in the server market.^[7]

Server market reaches $83.66 billion - Grand View Research

The volume of the global server market in 2020 reached $83.66 billion, according to data from the analytical company Grand View Research. Experts did not specify the dynamics in comparison with 2019, but noted that the demand for this equipment was on the rise.

Most of the server sales (65%) in 2020 came from large companies. Analysts attributed their leadership to the fact that such a business, due to its size, is able to spend a lot of money on its IT infrastructure. In addition, large companies tend to have long-standing partnerships with IT service providers that help customers customize systems.

Approximately 40% of the servers sold worldwide in 2020 were delivered to customers not by manufacturers directly, but by their trading partners. At the same time, ODM manufacturers who independently supply equipment to data centers demonstrate higher growth rates compared to branded companies largely due to reduced prices (ODM companies offer products cheaper due to savings in advertising and other expenses). Large data center operators like Amazon have long established cooperation with ODM manufacturers, helping the latter to increase their share.

By the end of 2020, representatives of the IT and telecommunications industries became the largest buyers of servers on a global scale - they purchased more than 38% of the total equipment. Experts attribute this fact to the growing mobile traffic and the high penetration of smartphones in the world. In the future, this segment will be helped by the launch of 5G networks in different countries.

Representatives of the financial sector are named the second largest category of server buyers. The top three included state institutions and the defense complex. Next are health care institutions and energy companies, which are part of the group of largest buyers of servers.

As for the balance of power between vendors, leadership in the server market, both in terms of revenue and supplies, is held by Dell and. HPE The IDC collected statistics show that the difference in market share for these companies is 1% or less, so they were put together on the first line of the rating. Dell and HPE are estimated to contribute approximately 17% to global server sales. The top three also includes a Chinese brand. Inspur

In addition, IBM and Huawei are among the top 5 server manufacturers in terms of revenue. Lenovo is located near these companies. More than 25% of revenue in the server market came from ODM manufacturers selling equipment directly to data centers.

From a regional point of view, the largest server sales are in North America - more than 40% of the equipment in money was sold there in 2020. North America's leadership is primarily due to the presence of hyperscale data centers owned by Amazon, Google and Facebook. According to analysts, North America is able to maintain the first place in server sales due to the development of 5G networks, the Internet of Things and peripheral computing.

In second place in terms of server revenue is the Asia-Pacific region, which is largely facilitated by smart cities projects.

According to forecasts of the research company Acumen Research and Consulting, the volume of the global server market in the period from 2020 to 2027 will grow by about 9.8% annually and will reach $168.9 billion by the end of this period of time. Experts consider the ever-increasing demand for security and storage technologies in key industries as one of the catalysts for market growth.^[8]

2019

Companies around the world purchased servers worth $76.48 billion

In 2019, companies purchased servers worth $76.48 billion, analysts at Research Nester calculated. They did not specify the dynamics and only noted that sales increased and again (as in 2018) turned out to be record.

New technologies with improved security, performance, and reliability enable companies to easily and efficiently manage their data centers. Hence the growing demand for servers, the study said.

According to experts, the rise of the server market is facilitated by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, due to which many people around the world began to work and study from home. This trend has led to a surge in demand for cloud tools that require data centers with a large number of servers to operate.

Analysts point out that North America remains the largest server market, accounting for more than 34% of product sales in 2019. This region is followed by Europe with a 30 percent rate. In both North America and Europe, server sales are boosted largely by IoT and big data projects. The shares of EMEA and other regions in the total server market are not named.

Among the largest manufacturers of enterprise-level servers, analysts included the following companies:

• Cisco;
• Toshiba;
• Lenovo;
• Oracle;
• Dell Technologies;
• Inspur;
• Super Micro Computer;
• Inventec;
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise;
• NEC;
• Apple;
• Acer;
• IBM;
• Micro Focus;
• Fujitsu.

The share and balance of power among vendors of specialists did not lead.

It also follows from the report that about half of the servers sold to companies in 2019 were based on Windows operating systems. It is expected that in 2020 the volume of this segment will be measured at $58.85 billion.^[9]

Delivery of 12.1 million servers (+ 2.4 %)

The volume of the global server market in 2019 amounted to 12.1 million units, an increase of 2.4% compared to the previous year. This is evidenced by the data of the analytical company ResearchAndMarkets, which were released on May 19, 2020.

According to experts, server sales on a global scale at the end of 2019 could have been higher if not for the US-Chinese trade conflict, due to which equipment supplies were affected.

Characterizing the balance of power in the server market, analysts among the five largest suppliers listed Dell EMC, HPE, Inspur, Huawei and Lenovo. Huawei's server shipments have declined for the reason already mentioned - trade disagreements between Beijing and Washington.

Among the factors still contributing to the growth of the server market, analysts attributed the cycle of updating IT equipment in companies, strong demand from cloud service providers, and the growing use of servers as the main building blocks for deploying software-defined infrastructure. In addition, experts point to the widespread interest in new Intel processors and the increasing spread of next-generation workloads.

Researchers say that the outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19 hurt participants in the markets of computers, mobile phones, etc., but almost did not affect the server industry. The fact is that due to the spread of the disease, companies began to switch to remote work of employees, as a result of which the demand for cloud and other technologies that ensure the work of staff from home increased significantly. This, in turn, spurs server sales.

ResearchAndMarkets believes that by the end of 2020, the global server market will grow by 3%, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.^[10]

Market drop 3.1% in pieces and 2.5% in money (Gartner)

The volume of the global server market in physical terms at the end of 2019 decreased by 3.1% compared to 2018, and revenue from sales of this equipment sank by 2.5%. Such data were presented by Gartner analysts, who at the same time do not lead absolute values ​ ​ in their sample to a paid study.

However, Gartner previously reported that in 2018, the global server market received 12.9 million pieces of equipment worth $78.06 billion. Taking into account these figures, it turns out that in 2019 the market volume amounted to 12.5 million units in the amount of $76.1 billion.

The server market showed a decline, despite strong performance at the end of 2019, when strong demand for equipment from operators of hyperscale data centers resumed. Thanks to such customers, ODM manufacturers selling products directly to data centers were able to significantly increase sales. Another positive factor for the server market was the increased purchases of systems that do not use the x86 processor architecture.

Among the largest server manufacturers, Dell EMC was named the leader, which in 2019 accounted for 16.3% of quantitative device shipments and 20.5% of revenue. HPE came in second with a market share of 17.3% in money and 12.3% in pieces.

Inspur turned out to be the only server vendor whose revenues and piece deliveries in the server market increased in 2019. Inspur leads the home (Chinese) server market and seeks to distinguish its products from competitors, using, in particular, elements of artificial intelligence, experts say.

In the first months of 2020, analysts recorded a strong surge in demand for servers due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which is pushing companies to switch to remote work, and users to spend more and more time on the Internet.^[11]

TrendForce Market Leaders

On December 23, 2019, the analytical company TrendForce published some results of research on the global server market. According to experts, in 2019, equipment sales remained at the level of the previous year due to the US-China trade war, which undermined demand and pushed manufacturers to transfer capacity from China to other countries.

This negative factor could have caused the server market to fall in 2019, but the situation was improved by the increased demand for equipment from data center operators in the second half of the year. First of all, we are talking about Amazon Web Service (AWS) and Facebook.

Google and Microsoft have reduced server purchases in part due to a change in the location of production facilities.

According to TrendForce, the largest server manufacturers remained in place in 2019. Dell EMC retained its leadership, accounting for 15.8% of hardware shipments, compared to 16.7% in 2018. In second place is HPE with a 13.8% share.

In 2019, server sales fell for almost all top 5 participants, except Inspur, which managed to record an 11% increase. As a result, the market share of the Chinese vendor for the year rose from 7.8% to 8.7%. According to experts, the conflict between the United States and China Inspur was in the hands of the trade.

The study notes that Huawei, which fell under US sanctions that limited the company's purchase of components necessary for servers, decreased shipments in 2019 by 4.8%. However, analysts note that after progress was made in negotiations between Washington and Beijing in the third quarter, demand for Huawei server equipment began to recover, especially in the company's domestic market. This trend should continue in 2020.^[12]

2018

Cloud Server Market Growth by 29% to $86 Billion - Counterpoint Research

The global market for servers used to launch and operate cloud services reached $86 billion in 2018, an increase of 28% compared to 2017. Such data were released on May 5, 2019 by Counterpoint Research analysts.

Sales of the equipment in question increased due to demand from owners of large data centers, including Equinix and Digital Realty Trust, as well as leading cloud service providers such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google. These companies also offer IaaS services (infrastructure as a service), whose users receive computing infrastructure managed via the Internet, said Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.

Experts call HPE and Dell EMC the largest manufacturers of cloud servers, which at the end of 2018 received approximately the same market share - about 16%. The leading five accounted for almost half of the revenue.

Experts note the rapid growth of Chinese vendors, especially Inspur Power Systems and Huawei, which in 2018 increased server sales by 72% and 33%, respectively.

In addition, Taiwanese ODM manufacturers are strengthening their position, supplying equipment directly to data centers. The share of such players, which, in particular, include Foxconn, Wistron and Inventec, reached 39% in the total volume of the cloud server market in monetary terms.

Counterpoint Research Assistant Director Brady Wang says Chinese and Taiwanese companies are ramping up server shipments thanks to low prices. Large data center operators are increasingly choosing to purchase equipment from ODM suppliers in order to reduce costs.

As a result, Inspur increased its share in the cloud server market in pieces from 3% in 2016 to 7% in 2018. The share of ODM companies rose during this time from 19% to 25%.^[13]

Up 13.1% in pieces and 30.1% in money - Gartner

In 2018, quantitative server deliveries on a global scale increased by 13.1% compared to 2017, and revenue in the market jumped by 30.1%. This is evidenced by Gartner data released on March 18, 2019.

Analysts did not give absolute values ​ ​ characterizing the market situation. However, they previously reported shipping 11.4 million servers worth $60 billion in 2017. It turns out that in 2018, server sales reached 12.9 million units in the amount of $78.06 billion.

The largest growth rates of the server market were registered in the Asia-Pacific region: here in 2018 there was a rise of 38.3% in money and 17.6% in pieces. In North America, equipment deliveries increased by 34% and 15.9%, respectively.

In 2018, the server market in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) grew by 3.1% in physical terms and by 20.4% in monetary terms. The Latin American market posted a 20.9 percent take-off in terms of revenue, but fell 4.4 percent on unit sales counts. In Japan, quantitative server shipments increased by 2.1% in 2018 compared to 2017, and in terms of revenue, the market grew by 3.3%.

Gartner senior analyst Kiyomi Yamada cites the growing costs of building new and updating existing data centers owned by telecommunications operators and owners of hyperscale data centers (Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.) as reasons for increasing demand for servers. These companies are increasing costs (although they are less than at the beginning of 2017) to meet the demand for communication services and cloud services, the expert notes.

Gartner does not name the world's largest server manufacturers for the whole of 2018, but cites data for the fourth quarter (see tables below).^[14]

Up 5% to 12.42 million - DRAMeXchange

On December 20, 2018, the analytical company DRAMeXchange presented the results of a study of the global server market. Its volume, according to experts, in 2018 reached 12.42 million units, an increase of 5% compared to the previous year.

According to Mark Liu, senior analyst at DRAMeXchange, the main merit in the growth of server sales on a global scale belongs to American brand manufacturers (Dell EMC and HPE), which accounted for more than 30% of equipment shipments. More information on the balance of power in the market is provided in the table below.

The study says that during 2018, manufacturers of branded servers were able to show a significant recovery: in the first quarter, companies experienced a slight decline due to the seasonal factor, but in the second quarter they increased deliveries by more than 10%, and in July-September they achieved peak shipments of 3.2 million units.

In terms of percentage breakdown by server type, enterprise servers account for most of the global supply, and the share of technology used in data centers increased to almost 35% in 2018 due to the fact that demand in this segment is less prone to seasonal factors. ODMs supplying servers directly to data centers increased revenue in North America by 17% in the first half of 2018, and by 12% in the second half. Experts explained the slowdown in growth by adjustments to product stocks and a reduction in capital expenditures.

According to DRAMeXchange calculations, in 2018 Inspur delivered almost 1 million servers, of which about 30% fell on the Chinese market. The vendor receives most of the orders from Chinese Internet companies, including such giants as Baidu, Alibaba Group and Tencent. There is also a 20 percent increase in the supply of Huawei servers due to stable orders from telecommunications operators.^[15]

2017: A return to growth - Gartner data

In 2017, the global server market returned to growth due to an improved macroeconomic environment and growing demand for equipment from companies and owners of large data centers, according to research company Gartner.

Server deliveries on a global scale in 2017 increased by 3.1% and reached about 11.4 million units, and revenue increased by 10.4%, amounting to almost $60 billion. In 2016, the market fell almost 3% in money and showed almost zero growth in physical terms.

Speaking about the growth drivers of the server market, Gartner Vice President of Research Jeffrey Hewitt pointed to "relatively strong economies," as well as "positive results" in the corporate sector and the segment of hyperscale data centers, achieved due to the desire of the business to implement more digital solutions.

As for the prospects for 2018, small growth will remain, and corporate users will implement a hybrid approach in relation to local options and public clouds, using every of their benchmarks in the field of server applications, says Jeffrey Hewitt.

From the Gartner message, it follows that shipments of servers with x86 processors increased by almost 9%, and manufacturers' revenues from sales of such equipment jumped by 23.7%.

The study shows the balance of power among vendors only for the fourth quarter. TAdviser examined Gartner's quarterly reports and summarized data on individual companies. According to calculations based on analysts, in 2017 Dell EMC delivered more than 2 million servers, which allowed the company to take first place in the overall standings. In second position is Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) with 1.8 million devices released. China's Inspur Electronics is still showing the highest growth rates in server revenues and shipments.^[16]

2016

The share of x86 solutions reached 99.7%

Mercury Research estimates the market share of servers using Intel x86 processor architecture at 99.7% in the second quarter of 2016.

Record sales of HPC systems

In April 2017, the analytical company Hyperion Research, which was previously part of the IDC agency, released the results of a study of the global high-performance computing (HPC) server market. Sales of this equipment rose to a record thanks to supercomputers.

In 2016, the global market for HPC systems reached $11.2 billion, an increase of 4.4% compared to the previous year. This revenue turned out to be the largest in the history of the market. The previous maximum value was recorded in 2012 - $11.2 billion.

Researchers say the market for HPC servers has grown thanks to mid-to-high-end systems, whose sales offset the decline in the less expensive systems segment.

The largest growth was shown by the category of supercomputers (products worth from $500 thousand and more), where sales jumped by 26.2% - from $3.2 billion in 2015 to $4 billion in 2016. The implementation of systems in the price range of $250-500 thousand rose by 18.2% to $2.3 billion.

Sales of equipment, which is offered at a price of 100 to 250 thousand dollars, decreased by almost 20% and amounted to $3.1 billion. In the segment of workstations (computer equipment up to $100 thousand) there was a 7 percent decline to $1.7 billion.^[17]

HPC servers are closely connected not only with scientific achievements, but also with industrial innovations and economic competitiveness. For this reason, countries and regions around the world, as well as enterprises and universities of all sizes, are increasing their investments in high-performance computing. In addition, the global race to achieve exaflop performance will drive sales of high-end supercomputers, said Hyperion Research CEO Earl Joseph.

Sales decline by 2.7% to $54 billion, HPE - earns the most

On March 2, 2017, analysts Gartner presented the results of a study of the global server market. Its volume grew slightly in physical terms, but decreased in monetary terms. The market leader in pieces was, Dell ahead of it. HPE

In 2016, manufacturers released a total of more than 11 million servers worth more than $54 billion. The report notes that the quantitative supply of equipment rose by only 0.1%, and the vendor's revenue decreased by 2.7%.

According to Jeffrey Hewitt, vice president of research at Gartner, several factors determined the picture in the server market in 2016. In particular, the expansion of hyperscale data centers (for example, those owned by Facebook and Google) affected, which led to a significant update of equipment at these facilities. Companies' spending on server purchases has grown at a slower pace as organizations and businesses increasingly use virtualization and cloud services, Hewitt noted.

The x86 processor architecture remains the dominant server platform used in large data centers around the world. The growing demand for integrated systems (including hyperconverged solutions), whose share, however, remains small throughout the infrastructure equipment market, also stimulated sales of x86 systems in 2016, Gartner said.

The study does not show the balance of power among manufacturers at the end of 2016. Only the position of vendors in the fourth quarter is indicated. In this period, Dell jumped to first place in server shipments with a 19.1 percent share. HPE, which previously led the production of equipment, reduced its shipments by 19.4%, as a result of which the market share decreased to 17.2%. At the same time, HPE remained in first place in terms of revenue from server sales.^[18]

2015

Record sales

On March 10, 2016, the analytical company International Data Corporation (IDC) released the results of a study of the global server market. Its volume, as experts found out, reached a record value.

According to IDC, in 2015, the total revenue of manufacturers from server sales in the world amounted to $55.1 billion, which is 8% more than a year earlier. Deliveries of systems increased by 4.9% to 9.7 million units, which is the highest indicator in the history of the market.

In October-December 2015, server sales increased by 5.2% on an annualized basis and amounted to $15.3 billion. This quarterly growth was the seventh in a row and was the result of the ongoing cycle of equipment updates in companies and the expansion of data centers of cloud providers.

As the refresh cycle seen in 2015 has come to an end, market attention has begun to shift toward software-defined infrastructure and hybrid management environments as companies embark on transforming their IT infrastructures and also prepare for demand in the coming years for IT solutions such as the Internet of Things and cognitive analytics, says IDC analyst Cuba Stolarski. - In 2016, the growth rate of cloud infrastructure expansion is expected to accelerate due to the development of existing businesses and the launch of new cloud data centers around the world.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) remained the largest server manufacturer, whose revenue in the market in 2015 rose 5.8% to $14.1 billion, which corresponds to 25.6% in total. Dell retained the second place (17.5%), and IBM retained the third place (13%). The latter continues to reduce server sales after it sold part of this business to Lenovo.

The Chinese vendor, in turn, thanks to this deal, is actively strengthening its position as a server manufacturer. In 2015, Lenovo raised $4.1 billion on the market, up 170% from a year earlier. This put it ahead of Cisco, which ended 2015 with a market share of 6.5% versus Lenovo's 7.5^[19]

According to researchers, in IDC 2015, 98% of released servers were based on processors with the architecture x86 they promote. Intel

Every third server in the world is not needed

About 10 million of all physical servers in the world - which is 30% of their total - are in a "comatose" state. This means that they do not process or give out any information for six months or more, but continue to consume electricity, follows from a report published in the summer of 2015 by the Anthesis Group consulting company in conjunction with Stanford University^[20].

It will not be possible to find unused servers using CPU or memory load measurement - namely, these methods are the most popular in companies, the report says. Therefore, analysts used special software that polls servers for operating data - information for the sake of processing which the server works.

Unused servers include both individual servers and servers that support virtual environments. The value of this unused asset is $30 billion, based on the assumption that the average server cost is $3 thousand, as well as excluding infrastructure costs and current costs for maintaining and maintaining servers.

If it were possible to disconnect all unused servers in the world, the power savings would be 2.2 GW only from the servers themselves and another approximately 1.8 GW from cooling and infrastructure.

The results of Anthesis coincided with other studies, including studies by the Uptime Institute and McKinsey & Company, according to which only two-thirds of servers are used in the United States. Anthesis received the same figure, but for the whole world as a whole. Moreover, according to McKinsey, in business it is rare for servers to load more than 6%.

2014: Up 3%

On March 3, 2015, the research company International Data Corporation (IDC) published the results of an analysis of the global server market. Its volume, as experts found out, reached a record value, which is the greater merit of China.^[21]

According to IDC estimates, 9.2 million servers were released to the global market in 2014, which is 2.9% more than a year earlier. There has never been such a large volume, experts say. In money, the server market showed 2.3 percent growth - up to $50.9 billion.

In October-December 2014, server sales increased by 1.9% (to $14.5 billion), and this quarterly rise was the third in a row. Analysts attribute the nine-month positive dynamics to the ongoing cycle of updating computer equipment in companies and growing infrastructure investments from cloud providers.

In addition, the Chinese server market plays an important role, the volume of which reached a record level of $2 billion in the last three months of 2014, an increase of 26.2% compared to the same period in 2013. The four largest vendors from the Celestial Empire Inspur, Huawei, Lenovo and Sugon increased server revenue by more than half, according to the IDC report.

HP remains the largest server manufacturer on a global scale, but in 2014 the American company increased system sales by only 0.8%, and the vendor's market share fell to 26.2% from 26.6% a year earlier.

File:Screenshot 2015-03-04 in 14.49.15.png

Positions of the largest server manufacturers in 2013 and 2014

HP is followed by its compatriot IBM, whose positions after the sale of the x86 solutions direction began to rapidly weaken. The blue giant ended 2014 with an 18.4 percent share, while a year earlier it was measured at 25.6 percent. In the fourth quarter, IBM's presence fell to 13.7%, and the corporation lost second place to Dell.

The latter earned $9 billion on servers in 2014, raising this income by 5.7% on an annualized basis. The top five manufacturers also included Cisco and Oracle, which took Cisco% and 4.6% of the market, respectively.

2012

The Blade Market Is at a Standstill

According to Gartner^[22], the global blade server market stalled in 2011, as increased sales of other types of server hardware "cannibalized" the growth that blade suppliers had previously achieved. In unit terms, the share of blades in the global server market in 2012 amounted to 12%, which does not differ much from the 2011 figure - 13%, in monetary terms - 21%.

Thus, in the blade north segment, virtually nothing has changed since 2011. On the contrary, the segment of multi-node servers in 2012 increased its market share from 7.8% to 15% - almost twice. The share of this segment in monetary terms in the period from 2011 to 2012 also increased from 5.3% to 10%.

Most blade servers and multi-node servers come in an x86 architecture, the study said. Nevertheless, vendors such as HP, IBM and Oracle supply non-x86 blades on the market, mainly intended for Unix users. Vendors such as Supermicro, SeaMicro (acquired by AMD), Dell, Huawei and HP produce low-power servers based on Intel, AMD and ARM processors .

Gartner experts point out that since multi-site servers are gradually capturing a segment of low-load systems, and blades are usually used as the basis for FBI systems, more and more blade servers are also used for complex applications such as highly loaded systems, data storage, ERP and CRM.

Blades are also well suited for in-memory databases. All this has increased the overlap in the use of blades, multi-node and rack servers in various areas, which forces vendors to be present in all these segments in order to optimize workloads in each specific form factor. Gartner recommends that customers require proof of server performance in all load scenarios from their suppliers.

Magic Quadrant for Blade Servers

Gartner, 2013

As for the vendors, a very interesting situation is also developing here. After HP and IBM dominated the blade server market for a long time, Cisco entered this market since 2009 and very quickly took the lead, gradually gaining market share from these companies. HP, IBM and Cisco in 2012 controlled 80% of the global blade server market in quantitative terms.

Fujitsu is also a strong player in the blade market, according to the April 2013 Gartner magic quadrant. Among the niche players are Huawei, Oracle, Hitachi and Bull, SGI is placed in the quadrant of visionaries.

Year-end: 1.9% sales decline to $51.3 billion

For the whole of 2012, revenue in the global server supply market decreased by 1.9% compared to 2011 and amounted to $51.3 billion. The volume of supplies also showed negative dynamics, having decreased by 1.5% over the year to an indicator of 8.1 million units.

The IDC study noted that Linux server revenue was positively impacted by demand for high-performance systems and cloud infrastructure deployment. Linux server revenue grew by 12.7% in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011 and amounted to $3 billion. Linux servers now account for 20.4% of all server revenue (up 1.7 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2011).

Installing a Windows server also remains a popular solution for customers. The demand for server systems based on Microsoft Windows, according to experts, continued to increase in the fourth quarter of 2012. Revenues from these server systems amounted to $6.7 billion in the fourth quarter, which means an increase of 3.3% compared to the same period last year. The share of Windows server sales is 45.8% of the total server market revenue for the fourth quarter of 2012 and this is similar to the share occupied in the fourth quarter of 2011.

In turn, the decline in revenues for Unix servers ($2.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012) amounted to 24.1% compared to the same period last year. Unix server sales account for 17.6% of total server revenue in the quarter under review.

According to IDC regarding the distribution of positions of major players in the global server market, according to the results of the fourth quarter of 2012, IBM is the leader in the "top 5" vendor. Revenue from this manufacturer in the reporting period amounted to $5.343 billion, and the share occupied is estimated at 36.5%. For the entire 2012, IBM revenue amounted to $15.748 billion, and market share - 30.7%.

It ranks second HP with revenue of $3.626 billion and a share of 24.8% in the fourth quarter of 2012. The annual indicators of this manufacturer are $14.149 billion and a market share of 27.6%.

The third line is occupied by Dell, whose revenue for the fourth quarter amounted to $2.218 billion, and the share is estimated at 15.1%. For the whole of 2012, Dell showed $8.165 billion in revenue and 15.9% in market share.

Next in the ranking are Oracle ($602 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 4.1% market share), Fujitsu ($501 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 3.4% market share) and Cisco ($480 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 3.3% market share).

At the end of 2012, Oracle's indicators amounted to $2.660 billion in revenue and 5.2% market share. Fujitsu figures - $2.070 billion in revenue and 4% market share. Cisco's figures are $1.610 billion in revenue and 3.1% market share.

Fourth Quarter

According to the results of the fourth quarter of 2012, the global revenue of manufacturers in the server market increased by 3.1% over the year and reached $14.6 billion. Such data are provided by the company's experts. IDC Positive figures for the fourth quarter in terms of revenue are observed, according to experts, for the first time in five previous quarters. At the same time, in terms of supply volumes, the global server market in the fourth quarter decreased its performance by 3.9% to 2.1 million units.

Q3

По данным Gartner Gartner Says the Worldwide Server Shipments Grew 3.6 Percent;^[23], in the third quarter^[23] 2012, global server deliveries increased by 3.6% in annual terms to 2.458 million units of equipment, while vendor revenue decreased by 2.8% to $12.6 billion compared to the third quarter of 2011.

В компании IDC Worldwide Server Market Revenues Decline 4.0% in Third Quarter as Market Demand Remained Soft,^[24], they point to an even greater drop in manufacturers' revenue in annual terms - by 4% to $12.2 billion, while, according to the same company, deliveries in unit terms increased by 0.6% over the year and amounted to 2.1 million units in the third quarter of 2012. Obviously, this difference in the results of the Gartner and IDC calculations is caused by the differences in assessment methods that are used by both research companies.

As Gartner analysts clarify, among the regions of the world only in North America and the Asia-Pacific region, sales of vendors in monetary terms turned out to be positive: they increased by 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively. Moreover, in North America, the maximum increase in server deliveries was also recorded: it increased by 7.4% in unit terms. IDC also points to positive growth in Asia and the Pacific, separately noting the success of the Chinese market.

In EMEA, server shipments reached nearly 590,000 units in the third quarter of 2012, down 2.8% from a year earlier. Manufacturers' revenue from the sale of server equipment in this region decreased by 9% in annual comparison to $3 billion, according to Gartner.

The top five server vendors were also not doing very well: four companies showed negative revenue dynamics, which increased only at Dell - by 10.3% in annual comparison. Compared to the results of a year ago, in general, the positions of companies in the market did not change, in the top five, supplier shares were distributed as follows in descending order: IBM (27.6%), HP (26.4%), Dell (16.7%), Oracle (4.7%) and Fujitsu (3.9%). Other vendors accounted for 20.7% of the market. IDC calculations contain the same calculations: the five leaders look similar.

Global Server Market Vendor Share by Revenue Q3 2012

IDC, 2012

Interestingly, according to Gartner, judging by the volume of supplies, and not by revenue, the positions of vendors in the global server market differ and look like this: HP (25.8%), Dell (23%), IBM (11.4%), Fujitsu (3.1%) and Cisco (2.3%), another 34.4% are accounted for by other companies.

Q2

Manufacturers' revenue in the global server market decreased by 4.8% over the year to $12.6 mldr in the second quarter of 2012, according to IDC^[25]. This is the third quarter, when in annual comparison the market results are negative. In unit terms, server deliveries in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2011 decreased by 3.6% to 2 million units, the first such decrease in comparison with the year over the past three years.

All segments of the server market plunged into depression at the same time: the volume systems segment decreased in annual terms by 2.5%, the midrange and high-end systems segment by 11.2% and 7.6%, respectively.

Top 5 server vendors in the global market by revenue for Q2 2012, $ million

IDC, 2012

According to IDC, HP and IBM shared the first line in the ranking of the world's largest server suppliers, since the difference between their shares (29.6% and 29.2%, respectively) is comparable to the statistical error. In third place in terms of revenue Dell (16%), in fourth Oracle (6%), in fifth Fujitsu (3.9%). Other suppliers accounted for another 15.3% of the market volume in the second quarter of 2012.

Technological trends:

• The volume of revenues from the implementation of Linux servers increased by 1.7% in annual terms to $2.8 billion, they accounted for 22.1% of the total market turnover.

• The segment of non-x86 servers, including RISC, EPIC (Itanium-based) and CISC architectures, decreased by 19.4% over the year to $3.9 billion. The segment's share in the market volume is 30.6%. This quarter was the fourth negative in a row.

• Revenue from the sale of x86 servers increased by 3.5% to $8.7 billion, even though deliveries in quantitative terms decreased by 0.6% to 1.9 million units. This is the first decrease in the supply of servers of such an architecture since the third quarter of 2009.

• The blades segment continues to show strong growth, with revenue from manufacturers in this segment up 6.3% and shipments up 4.1% compared to the second quarter of 2011. In general, the blade segment, both x86, EPIC and RISC, amounted to $2.1 billion or 16.9% of the total market volume in the second quarter of 2012.

Q1

According to IDC, manufacturers' revenue in the global server market in the first quarter of 2012 decreased by 2.4% compared to the same period a year earlier to $11.8 billion. This is the second unsuccessful quarter compared to last year, analysts point out. Despite the failure in monetary terms, in unit terms, server deliveries in the first quarter of 2012 increased by 2.7% compared to 2011, according to IDC.

Gartner synchronously with IDC records in the first quarter of 2012 a slight increase in supply volumes (by 1.5%) in the global server market and at the same time a decrease in manufacturers' profits, but less significant than IDC - by 1.8%.

Among the difficulties of the first quarter of 2012, IDC highlights a decrease in demand for about 10-11% for midrange and high-end systems, the lack of initiatives by vendors preparing to enter the market for key x86 architecture proposals, as well as low demand for server equipment in the Asia-Pacific region, primarily China.

As for other regions, according to Gartner, the maximum growth rate of server deliveries was recorded in the first quarter of 2012 in Eastern Europe, where they increased by 16%. In terms of revenue growth in this period, Japan was in the lead (+ 10.6%).

Top5 of server manufacturers in the first quarter of 2012 by revenue, $ million

Source: IDC, May 2012

In the first quarter of 2012, the position of key server manufacturers in the global market did not change significantly compared to the first quarter of 2012: the company occupied the first place HP (29.3% of the market), behind it by a small margin (IBM 27.3%), (Dell 15.6%), the fourth place was shared (Oracle 6.1%) and (5.2 Fujitsu %). At the same time, as can be seen from the table above, four out of five large vendors (except Fujitsu) have decreased revenue in annual terms quite seriously.

Interestingly, Gartner recognizes HP as the No. 1 vendor in the global market in terms of supply, but not revenue, placing IBM in second place. Be that as it may, the shares of both players are very close in monetary terms - 28.1% and 27.8% of the market. Whereas in unit terms, HP ranks first with 29.2%, and IBM is only third with 11.4%.

Server supplier revenue in the first quarter of 2012, $ million

Source: Gartner, May 2012

Share of Server Suppliers in Q1 2012 by Volume

Source: Gartner, May 2012

As for the market segments, the segment of non-x86 devices, including servers on RISC, EPIC (Itanium) and CISC processors, decreased in volume by 16.1% in annual terms to $3.4 billion. This segment accounted for 28.5% of the total market volume. At the same time, revenue from the x86 server segment increased by 4.5% to $8.4 billion, and in unit terms, the segment grew by 3.2% to 1.9 million servers. The Blades also posted growth of 7.3% in terms of revenue and 4.8% in terms of shipments compared to early 2011, according to IDC.

2011

Q4 and Year Totals

Market size

According to IDC, the global server market grew 5.8% to $52.3 billion in 2011, while global server shipments increased 4.2% to 8.3 million units in 2011. In the fourth, final quarter of 2011, the revenue of vendors from sales of North on the world market for the first time in two years decreased by 7.2% in annual terms to $14.2 billion.

Gartner estimates the global server market in 2011 at $52.79 billion (an increase of 7.9% compared to 2010. This analytical company also estimates deliveries slightly higher than IDC: in 2011, 9.52 million units of server products were delivered to the market, which is 7% more than in 2010 as a whole. In the fourth quarter of 2011, Gartner also recorded a serious revenue failure - by 5.4% to $13.9 billion, while in unit terms the market nevertheless grew by 4.5% to 2.5 million units. According to Geoffrey Hewitt, Gartner's vice president of research, the shortage of hard drive (HDD) stocks as a result of the October 2011 Thailand flood caused a supply failure, and many vendors were unable to meet demand in the last weeks of 2011. "We expect a continued negative impact on the market from the supply of disks in the first quarter of 2012," the analyst emphasized.

Leading vendors

In
the fourth quarter of 2011, the positions of megavendors in the global server market, based on dollar revenue, were distributed as follows in descending order of share: IBM, HP, Dell, Oracle, Fujitsu. Gartner and IDC analysts agree on this, not counting some discrepancies in estimates of the share of specific companies. In general, according to IDC, the five largest suppliers in the 4th quarter of 2011 accounted for 86.2% of the global server market, according to Gartner - 84.2%.

Data on the shares of vendors as a whole for 2011 are presented only in the Gartner report. According to them, in monetary terms, the five leading server suppliers were also IBM (30.5%), HP (29%), Dell (14.7%), Oracle (6.1%) and Fujitsu (4.8%). However, in unit terms, the situation looks radically different: HP (29.5%), Dell (22.2%), IBM (12.2%), Fujitsu (3.1%), Lenovo (1.7%).

Market segments

By Form Factor

According to IDC, in the last three months of 2011, profit decreased in all three largest market segments for the first time since 2009: sales of hi-end systems decreased the most - by 18.4% in the quarter to $3.7 billion.

The growth of the largest segment of x86 servers slowed down in the 4th quarter of 2011, so that the revenue of vendors in this segment in the last three quarters of 2011 decreased by 1.7% to $9.1 billion, while deliveries, on the contrary, increased by 2.9% to 2.1 million units.

In the blade server segment, manufacturers' revenue in the 4th quarter of 2011 increased by 8.3% in annual terms, and deliveries - by 1.7% in unit terms. In total, the blade server segment, including x86 architecture servers, EPIC and RISC architecture, accounted for $2.3 billion in the 4th quarter of 2011, which is 16.1% of the total market.

In November 2011, IDC also introduced a new segment of the server market called Hyper-Scale Servers, subsequently renamed Density Optimized Servers. Such servers are built for large data centers, where workloads are distributed and parallelized. The design of such servers takes into account three factors - performance, energy efficiency and density. In the 4th quarter of 2011, the segment of such servers in annual terms grew by 33.8% to $458 million, and deliveries increased by 51.5% to 132.8 thousand units. Now this segment accounts for 3.2% of the server market in monetary terms and 6.1% in unit terms.

By Software Platform

The demand for Linux servers in 2011 was strengthened by the growth of the high-performance computing (HPC) market and the deployment of cloud infrastructures. This is evidenced by an increase in revenue of vendors in this segment (it reached $2.6 billion) by 2.2% on an annualized basis in the fourth quarter of 2011. Linux server revenues accounted for 18.4% of the global server market, up 1.7% from the fourth quarter of 2010.

Demand for Microsoft Windows servers gradually decreased in the fourth quarter of 2011, and revenues from server sales in this segment decreased by 1.5% year-on-year. Quarterly revenues of $6.5 billion from Windows server sales account for 45.8% of the total revenue of vendors in the server market, which is 2.6: higher than in the same period in 2010.

Revenues from Unix server sales decreased by 10.7% year-on-year to $3.4 billion, accounting for 24.2% of the global server market. The Unix server market has not returned to pre-crisis levels, regardless of the change in market dynamics.

Q3

Global server shipments, according to research firm Gartner, grew 7.2% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2011, while revenue grew 5.2%.

Jeffrey Hewitt, Gartner's vice president of research, noted an increase in global server shipments in the third quarter of this year, noting significant fluctuations in the regions. "All regions showed an increase in the volume of supplies and revenues of vendors, with the exception of Western Europe, which was marked by a decrease in revenues by 4.9% during the reporting period. At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region showed the most significant growth in supply volumes, showing an increase of 23.9%. And in Eastern Europe, the highest growth in supplier revenues is 27.4% per quarter, "the analyst emphasized.

Servers on the x86 platform burst forward. The volume of supplies of this equipment increased by 7.6%, while growing in income by 9.3%. Western Europe and the United States were unable to show an increase in the volume of server sales of this type, due to the relatively stronger results of the third quarter of 2010. Global deliveries of RISC/Itanium Unix servers decreased by 6.8%, but vendor revenue increased by 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Servers of another category, primarily mainframes, showed a decrease of 6.9%.

The leading five global suppliers increased revenues in the third quarter of 2011. An exception to steel HP and: Oracle HP rolled back 3.6% on an annualized basis, and Oracle held on to losses. In terms of revenue, the global server market led (IBM see Table 1): the company received a little more than $3.8 billion in revenue with a total market share of 29.7% in the third quarter of 2011. On an annualized basis, the company's share decreased by 0.5%. Most of the revenue growth IBM was provided by sales of products of the Power Systems line, with some participation of System X.

According to Gartner estimates, the rating of leading vendors is as follows: at the head of the list, IBM tops the list with revenue of $3.846 billion and a market share of 29.7%, followed by HP with $3.802 billion and a share of 29.3%, followed by Dell, with indicators of $1.903 billion and 14.7%, Oracle occupies the fourth line with revenues of $0.763 billion and a share of 5.9%. In fifth position is Fujitsu with revenues of $0.603 billion and a market share of 4.7%.

Table 1. Q3 2011 Revenue Estimate for Leading Suppliers

Vendor	3Q11 Revenues ($ US)	Market Share in 3Q11 (%)	3Q10 Revenues ($ US)	Market Share in 3Q10 (%)	3Q10-3Q11 growth (%)
IBM	3,846,807,802	29.7	3,717,419,666	30.2	3.5
HP	3,802,440,047	29.3	3,942,615,230	32.0	-3.6
Dell	1,903,221,687	14.7	1,789,631,319	14.5	6.3
Oracle	763,610,285	5.9	763,964,420	6.2	0.0
Fujitsu	603,044,868	4.7	582,244,543	4.7	3.6
Other vendors	2,048,599,229	15.8	1,533,530,740	12.4	33.6
In total	12,967,723,917	100.0	12,329,405,918	100.0	5.2

Source: Gartner (November 2011)

HP remains the world leader in server shipments in the third quarter of 2011 (see Table 2), despite a 3.1% decrease in shipments compared to the same period last year. This decline was mainly due to the fall of the ProLiant brand. The global share of HP server shipments was 29.2%, down 3.1% from the same period in 2010. The company delivered 693,265 pieces of equipment in the third quarter.

Following HP, Dell was placed in the second line of the rating with a volume of 517.867 units and a share of 21.8%, which is 3.2% higher compared to the third quarter of the previous year. Behind it is IBM with 287.507 units and 12.1%. Fujitsu in the third position with a supply volume of 79.072 units and a share of 3.3%. Lenovo closes the top five rating in terms of delivery volume - 46.638 units and a share of 2.0%.

The rest of the vendors took a market share of 31.5% with a shipment volume of 748.633 units. Their market share in the third quarter of 2010 was 27.4% with delivery volumes of 607.641 units.

Table 2. Q3 2011 Server Delivery Estimate

Vendor	3Q11 Deliveries	3Q11 Market Share (%)	3Q10 Deliveries	Market Share in 3Q10 (%)	3Q10-3Q11 growth (%)
HP	693,265	29.2	715,481	32.3	-3.1
Dell	517,867	21.8	501,593	22.7	3.2
IBM	287,507	12.1	287,574	13.0	0.0
Fujitsu	79,072	3.3	75,479	3.4	4.8
Lenovo	46,638	2.0	26,346	1.2	77.0
Other vendors	748,633	31.5	607,641	27.4	23.2
In total	2,372,982	100.0	2,214,115	100.0	7.2

Source: Gartner (November 2011)

In terms of server form factor, blade server shipments grew 3.3% and revenue grew 7.6% in the quarter. In this quarter, there is also a rise in the supply of rack form factor servers by 8.2%, in revenues by 6.3%.

2010

Q2

Shipments in the global server market grew by 27.1% in the second quarter of 2010, with revenues increasing by 14.3%, according to Gartner. The Eastern European market grew the most (by 46.9% in terms of shipments and 26.2% in terms of revenue).

In the second quarter, the company became the leader in the global server market by profit, HP with revenues of $3.5 billion and a market share of 32%. The second place is in (IBM 27.7%), followed Dell Oracle by 16.3% and 8.5%, respectively. Closes the top five Fujitsu with a share of 3.2%. In addition, during the HP reporting period, growth was also shown. Dell Fujitsu

Q1

After a partially successful Q4 2009 in Q1 2010, the global server market showed positive dynamics in terms of both supply and revenue. In total, from January to March 2010, 2.12 million servers were delivered in the amount of $10.75 billion. Compared to the same period last year, deliveries increased by 23%, revenue - by 6%, according to Gartner.

According to analysts, despite the return to growth on a global scale, the market has not reached historically record levels in 2008. As for the regional results, they came out quite mixed. To a greater extent, analysts hoped for emerging economies (including Asia-Pacific), but they showed slow growth, which cannot be said for developed countries, such as the United States, in which server sales exceeded forecasts.

Sales of systems on the x86 architecture, which became the main factor in growth, rose by 25.3% in quantitative and 32.1% in monetary terms. Sales of systems based on RISC architecture and systems based on Intel Itanium processors, on the contrary, decreased, and significantly - by 28.5% in quantitative and 26.9% in monetary terms. Revenue from sales of other types of systems, which mainly include mainframes, decreased by 15.1%. Blade servers showed the highest growth among all other form factors, by 23.7% in quantitative and 40.7% in monetary terms.

In the regional context, the largest growth in supplies was shown by the United States (+ 28.6%), while the largest growth in revenue of vendors was Latin America (+ 27.9%). All other regions also showed positive dynamics, with the exception of Japan, whose server market contracted by 0.7% in monetary terms.

The largest manufacturer of servers in terms of revenue was Hewlett-Packard, which shifted IBM to the second drain. According to the results of the 1st quarter of 2010, HP's revenue reached $3.39 billion, the company occupied 31.5% of the world market, 2.7 percentage points more compared to the same period last year. IBM's revenue fell 2.1% to $3.05 billion. The company took 28.4% of the market in monetary terms. Dell and Fujitsu, as well as HP, showed positive dynamics.

Global Server Market: Supplier Revenue (in Dollars)

Company	Q1 2010 Revenue	Q1 2010 Market Share	Q1 2009 Revenue	Q1 2009 Market Share	Year-on-year growth ,%
HP	3'389'508'530	31,5	2'923'706'928	28,8	15,9
IBM	3'052'091'123	28,4	3'116'339'359	30,7	-2,1
Dell	1'673'579'438	15,6	1'235'116'170	12,2	35,5
Fujitsu	645'299'697	6,0	598'529'005	5,9	7,8
Oracle	597'935'146	5,6	975'540'776	9,6	-38,7
Others	1'396'332'908	13,0	1'295'026'317	12,8	7,8
In total	10'754'746'843	100,0	10'144'258'554	100,0	6,0

Source: Gartner

In terms of delivery volumes, HP also took the first line, as in the last quarter. In comparison, the company's deliveries increased by 26.6% year-on-year, mainly due to an increase in demand for servers in the ProLiant line. Dell, IBM and Fujitsu also showed positive dynamics, which are in second, third and fourth places, respectively. Oracle Corporation, which absorbed Sun Microsystems, took fifth place.

Global Server Market: Supply Volumes (pcs)

Company	Deliveries in Q1 2010	Q1 2010 Market Share	Q1 2009 Deliveries	Q1 2009 Market Share	Year-on-year growth ,%
HP	672'094	31,8	530'849	30,9	26,6
Dell	510'452	24,1	382'385	22,2	33,5
IBM	268'010	12,7	230'984	13,4	16,0
Fujitsu	77'613	3,7	59'029	3,4	31,5
Oracle	42'528	2,0	60'294	3,5	-29,5
Others	544'898	25,8	456'517	26,5	19,4
In total	2'115'595	100,0	1'720'059	100,0	23,0

Source: Gartner

Analysts do not specify the forecast for 2010. According to the latest estimate, both global supply volumes and manufacturers' revenue will grow this year. In 2009, we recall that the global server market sank by 16.6% in quantitative and 18.3% in monetary terms.

2008: Q4 sales decline 14% to $13.5 billion

Global server sales in Q4 2008 fell under pressure from the economic crisis, according to IDC data. The profits of vendors in this market, respectively, decreased by 14% compared to last year to $13.5 billion.

The fourth quarter turned out to be the second consecutive quarter with negative dynamics. In this situation, the segment of Windows servers feels the worst, which lost about 10% in the last quarter. Losses of the Unix server segment accounted for 6.2%, and Linux servers - 7%.

The reasons for this state of affairs are obvious: in the context of the financial crisis, the business began to spend less money on updating and improving its IT infrastructure, and, first of all, this affected the purchase of new equipment, including server equipment.

2007

According to analysts, Gartner the growth of the global server market has not previously exceeded 3.8%. At the same time, sales amounted to $54.8 billion. In physical terms, the market volume reached 8.8 million servers, which is 7.4% more than a year earlier. Thus, the average cost of a server sold has decreased slightly. It is worth noting that the market leaders remained the same - this IBM is it. HP Sales IBM amounted to about $17 billion, which allowed the company to retain first place in the ranking of the largest suppliers of this kind of equipment. Nevertheless, the growth compared to 2006 was only 0.6%, and demand for the servers IBM System I and System Z families even fell. In second place in the world ranking is, HP which sold 2.6 million servers for a total of $15.5 billion, which is 8.8% more than last year. Analysts note that so far HP is in second place in both revenue and volume, but HP's percentage growth in sales and profit significantly exceeds IBM's, and if HP maintains its growth rate, it has every chance of becoming a world leader. The third and fourth places are shared by companies (12.1%) Dell and (10.2%). Sun Microsystems At the same time, sales growth in the first amounted to 13.5%, while in the second - only 0.9%. Fujitsu closes the top five largest manufacturers of server systems Siemens with a market share of 5.4%. Thus, for several years in a row, the share of the five largest players in this market has been more than 85% and is constantly growing. The presence of other manufacturers in the market is becoming less and less noticeable. The main engine of the market remains entry-level servers (at a price of up to $25 thousand) - sales in this sector increased by 8.1%, while deliveries of middle and senior class servers (more expensive than $500 thousand) decreased by 2.2 and 14.5%, respectively. According to the data, the drop in sales in the IDC senior systems sector turned out to be the most significant in the past five years.

Notes