Revenue in the worldwide server market increased 12.1 percent year
over year to $11.9 billion in the first quarter of 2011 (1Q11),
according to IT research firm IDC. This is the fifth consecutive
quarter of year-over-year revenue growth, as server market demand
continued to improve around the world. The company’s report found
server unit shipments increased 2.5 percent year over year in 1Q11 to
1.9 million units, which is the second highest quarterly total ever
reported in the first calendar quarter of any year.
HP held the top position in the worldwide server market with 31.5
percent factory revenue share for 1Q11. HP’s 10.8 percent revenue
growth was led by improved demand for both x86-based ProLiant servers
and Itanium-based Integrity servers. IBM held the number two spot with
29.2 percent share for the quarter as factory revenue increased 22.1
percent compared to 1Q10 and gained 2.4 points of share from a year
ago. IBM experienced “significant improvement” for its Power Systems,
while demand for System z servers and x86-based System x servers also
remained strong.
Dell maintained third place with 15.6 percent factory revenue market
share in 1Q11 factory revenue increased 9.7 percent compared to 1Q10
driven in part by strong demand from SMB customers, while Oracle, which
completed the one-year anniversary of its Sun Microsystems acquisition
on January 27, maintained the number four position with 6.5 percent
factory revenue share in 1Q11. Oracle’s 1Q11 factory revenue increased
13.6 percent compared to 1Q10, driven in part by improved demand for
SPARC-based servers.
Fujitsu rounded out the top five with 4.8 percent factory revenue
share following a 15.6 percent year-over-year decline in server
revenue. Finally, IDC initiated coverage of Cisco’s UCS server platform
in the 1Q11 Server Tracker. Cisco maintained 1.6 percent factory
revenue share overall, with particular strength in x86-based blades in
North America.
"Meaningful enterprise infrastructure refresh occurred across all
geographies in the quarter. Although the public sector weakened,
worldwide demand for servers across hosters, SMBs, and enterprise
customers remained strong. This was the fourth consecutive quarter with
double-digit year-over-year revenue growth as the market recovery
extended from x86 servers to midrange Unix to high-end mainframe class
systems for the first time in nearly three years," said Matt Eastwood,
group vice president of enterprise platforms at IDC.
"This is evidence that heterogeneous systems remain critically
important to customers addressing a wide range of workload needs in
their datacenters," he explained. "As we moved into 2011, IDC predicted
the technology refresh cycle would extend from volume- to
value-oriented systems with somewhat longer planning horizons, and this
is clearly happening."