EMEA follows suit with server success

Server revenue growth in EMEA hit double figures for the first time since 2007, according to research released today.

Analyst firm IDC claimed revenues grew 10.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, hitting $3.5 billion (2.13 billion). Shipments were also shown to rise by 2.6 per cent, just shy of 580,000 units.

"The server market landscape is undergoing a transformation driven by increased demand for data centre optimisation to support virtualisation, automation and cloud strategies," said Nathaniel Martinez, research director of the enterprise server group at IDC EMEA.

"Cloud projects are set to profoundly change European server environments, as more customer sites adopt cloud-based infrastructures in 2011."

The best growth came in the mid-range market prices from $25,000 up to $249,000 with revenue rising 15.3 per cent year-on-year. High-end servers also enjoyed a bolster of 13.2 per cent. Low-end or "volume" servers still rose, but by a smaller 9.2 per cent year-on-year.

Unsurprisingly, the type of server most responsible for the growth was x86-based machines, accounting for 66.6 per cent of total revenue or $2.3 billion. This also equated to an 11.9 per cent growth year-on-year.

When it came to vendors, HP still ruled the roost, holding number one spot in market share for the 13th consecutive quarter and making $1.45 billion revenues in EMEA alone.

However, IBM made headway, growing its market share by almost five per cent in one year and reaching revenues of over $1 billion.

Two weeks ago, IDC released its worldwide figures, showing overall revenues were up 12.1 per cent year-on-year, hitting a total of $11.9 billion for the server market.