Blade systems lead server sales
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Blade servers are pushing increased sales in the server sector
According to IDC, that ensured the company maintained its 35% share of the server sector, and kept it ahead of IBM, where growth of 1.9% gave it 29% market share and Sun, where growth of 4.7% kept its market share at 11.4%.
The real stars of the quarter, though, were Dell and Fujitsu Siemens. Dell’s rekindled growth rate hit 21%, pushing its market share back to almost 10%, while Fujitsu Siemen’s 13.3% rise in revenues took its share to 8.5%.
Overall, server revenues rose 4.8% to $4.4 billion, says IDC, with the strongest demand coming from Central and Eastern Europe, along with Africa and the Middle East.
The rising popularity of blades was evident in the figures, showing boosted revenue growth of 53.1%.
IDC research analyst Beatriz Valle observes that the market was in a period of disruption, partly attributable to booming interest in virtualisation.
“Processor technologies and form factors such as multi-core and blade are pushing virtualisation to the forefront, and vendors are playing catch-up to sell solutions to the mid-market that exploit these technologies. Green computing will also be a segment to watch,” she says.
Meanwhile, at a global level, rival firm Gartner reported that spend grew by 2.5% in the first quarter of 2008. By revenue, IBM leads the field with $3.91 billion in sales, giving it a 29.5% share; HP was close behind at $3.77 billion and a 28% share.
Among the top vendors, growth was strongest at Dell and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens (6.6% and 4.9%, respectively). But at Sun server revenues were down on the quarter a year ago, says Gartner – by 0.7%.
In terms of units shipped, HP was way ahead. The 683,433 machines it shipped gave it 30% of the market, ahead of Dell with 21% and IBM with 13%.
