Server growth returns to Europe

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The server market has returned to growth for the first time since 2008, according to a tracker report released by analyst company IDC today.

IDC’s server tracker for the first quarter of 2010 showed a year-on-year increase in shipments of 16.4 per cent and an increase in revenues of 7.4 per cent, taking the total market size to $3.2 billion (£2.2 billion).

IDC's shipment figures weren’t as positive as last week's server market figures from analyst company Gartner, which showed a rise of 23 per cent, but both indicated a similar jump in revenues.

Overall the IDC and Gartner reports showed a massive improvement in the market. 2009 had seen double-digit declines in every quarter. However, the market still hasn’t returned to the success of pre-recession figures which were $4.4 billion at the end of 2008.

“Whilst it is encouraging that annual growth rates in EMEA are higher than trends recorded on a worldwide basis, the quarter-on-quarter growth data indicates this recovery is far from consolidated,” said Beatriz Valle, senior research analyst in the Enterprise Server Group for IDC in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), in a statement.

In terms of types of servers, x86 products outperformed non-x86 technologies, selling double the number of units and accounting for almost 65 per cent of the revenues. But, surprisingly, blade servers performed below average.

Giorgio Nebuloni, senior research analyst in the Enterprise Server Group for IDC EMEA, said in a statement: "With a year-on-year growth of 12 per cent in units, blade servers performed slower than the market average for the first time ever, as the bulk of shipments in [the first quarter of 2010], both from mid and large enterprises, came from a huge refresh of two socket x86 rack machines.”

“However, [the] blade [server market] grew yearly 32 per cent in revenue against a seven per cent market average, a sign that those platforms keep attracting large enterprise investments.”

As with the Gartner report, IDC showed HP as the leading company by market share, accounting for 41.5 per cent, with IBM trailing behind on 25 per cent.

Sun Microsystems – now owned by Oracle – saw a two per cent growth in its share but still dropped over 15 per cent of its revenue when compared to the first quarter of 2009.

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