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IDC: EMEA Server Market Performs Strongly in 2Q08 as IT Managers
Invest in Scalable Servers, Demand Diversifies From x86 Space, says IDC
(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:29082008
LONDON and PRAGUE -- According to IDC's EMEA Quarterly Server Tracker,
factory revenue in the EMEA server market grew 8.7% year over year to $
4.4 billion in the second quarter of 2008. Shipments grew 12.4% to
reach nearly 700,000, 95.5% of which were x86 boxes. The overall server
market results in EMEA presented the highest growth since the first
quarter of 2007 in factory revenue terms and since the third quarter of
2005 when looking at unit volumes, despite the overall slowing economy.
Growth in Central and Eastern Europe continued to outstrip other
subregions. Server revenue there was up 17.8%, followed closely by the
Middle East and Africa, with 16.1% more sales than in the same quarter
last year. As usual, the more mature Western European markets lagged
behind, but still displayed very healthy growth of 6.8%.
"The imbalance between unit and revenue growth indicates the x86
segment is showing the strain of commoditization and downward pressures
on prices," said Nathaniel Martinez, director of European Enterprise
Servers at IDC. "The upswing in RISC/Itanium Unix servers and sales of
CISC reflects a seasonal refresh cycle as corporate customers replace
older legacy systems, and is expected to moderate. Technologies such as
virtualization, blade, and multicore continued to thrive."
According to Beatriz Valle, research analyst at IDC, "companies still
see scalable servers with high availability and RAS features as a
future-proof investment, while they wait for virtualization on x86 to
mature further. These are uncertain times and IT managers are expecting
their budgets to be squeezed even more in the coming quarters. But
emerging models such as cloud computing, and growth in Web 2.0, are
presenting exciting opportunities for vendors."
"Blades continued to far outstrip the overall market, with revenue up
42.2% annually to over $ 400 million. Pedestals, still at nearly 50% of
total revenue, increased by a healthy 9% over the year-ago period for
the first time since IDC records began, displaying the focus on entry
level pedestal promotions, mainly targeted at the SMB sector," said
Giorgio Nebuloni, research analyst at IDC.
Once again the CEMA region (Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East
and Africa) exhibited year-on-year revenue growth of 17% in 2Q08.
"Demand for high-end servers was again particularly strong, reporting
the highest percentage growth thanks to the larger sectors such as
banking, telco, and processor manufacturing, across the regions," said
Stefania Lorenz, research director, CEMA region. "Overall, sales of
bladed servers grew by 38% annually in the regions combined."
IDC Server Market Findings
Revenue for x86 and non-x86 servers was evenly split, but growth in the
non-x86 segment accelerated considerably faster at 11.3% annually. In
units, the x86 segment enjoyed growth in the double digits, while
shipments of non-x86 boxes continued to decrease. CISC server revenue
rose 42.2% over the same quarter last year, while RISC stabilized.
Windows led the operating system market results, with annual growth of
10.3% and a revenue market share more than three percentage points
ahead of Unix, which also displayed strong growth of 8% in revenue.
Linux decreased by 1.8% over the year ago period, the first time this
operating system has suffered a dip in revenue since the first quarter
of 2002.
Volume servers displayed flat revenue growth to $2.2 billion as the
bulk of server growth went to high-end and midrange boxes. These rose
in revenue by 22.7% and 12.9%, respectively. However, volume servers
continued to be the dominant market segment in 2Q08 at around 50% of
the total revenue in EMEA.
Regarding processor brands, POWER6 and SPARC64VI chips both enjoyed
outstanding growth as a consequence of the spike in demand for high-end
servers. Opteron decreased slightly while enterprise customers await
the forthcoming 45-nanometers version.
IDC Vendor Market Findings
HP was just ahead of IBM in EMEA, producing a statistical tie this
quarter. Sales of Proliant grew 5.3% in revenue and 16.6% in units.
Integrity overall represented 26.6% of the vendor's total EMEA revenue,
and the Integrity Non-Stop segment in particular continued to benefit
from migration by customers at the end of their life cycles.
IBM enjoyed outstanding revenue growth of 18.2% over the year-ago
period on the back of a stellar performance of its System z mainframes,
up 47.3%. A strong, balanced result across all its server lines helped
the vendor noticeably narrow the gap with HP. The recently created
Power systems family sold around $180 million.
Sun displayed a modest rate of growth of 1.9%, and its SPARC Enterprise
line, recently revamped with the next generation of SPARC64 VII chips
and also sold by Fujitsu Siemens, achieved growth rates in the triple
digits.
Dell was the only vendor alongside IBM to achieve double-digit growth,
as sales of Primergy reached 17.2% annually.
Fujitsu Siemens managed to show growth in a very competitive
environment, thanks to following through with its commitment to
offering a balanced product mix. Its BS2000 mainframes grew 21.5% year
over year while Primergy rose 5.7%.
Top 5 EMEA Server Vendors 2Q08 (Factory Revenue in Millions)
Vendor 2Q07 Revenue 2Q07 Market Share 2Q08
Revenue 2Q08 Market Share Growth 2Q08 over 2Q07
Hewlett-Packard $1,404 34.1% $1,463
32.7% 4.2%
IBM $1,219 29.6% $1,440 32.1% 18.2%
Sun Microsystems $566 13.8% $577
12.9% 1.9%
Dell $362 8.8% $425 9.5% 17.2%
Fujitsu Siemens $270 6.6% $279 6.2%
3.1%
Other $298 7.2% $296 6.6% -0.7%
Total Market $4,119 100% $4,479 100%
8.7%
IDC's EMEA Quarterly Server Tracker is a quantitative tool for
analyzing the server market on a quarterly basis. The tracker includes
quarterly shipments (both ISS and upgrades) and revenues (both customer
and factory), segmented by vendor, family, model, region, country,
operating system, price band, CPU type, and architecture. For more
information, please contact Nathaniel Martinez on +44 (0) 20 8987 7184
or email nmartinez@idc.com, or contact your local IDC office, or visit
www.idc.com.
IDC will be holding events on Virtualization in the following
countries, for more information please visit
www.idc.com/events/emea_eventshome.jsp.
Amsterdam, September 10
Nicosia, Cyprus, September 11
Bratislava, September 23
Lagos, Nigeria, October 9
Nairobi, October 16
Istanbul, October 22
Copenhagen, October 23
Stockholm, November 5
Oslo, November 18
Johannesburg, November 19
Casablanca, November 25
About IDC
IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory
services, and events for the information technology,
telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT
professionals, business executives, and the investment community make
fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy.
More than 1000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local
expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over
110 countries worldwide. For more than 44 years, IDC has provided
strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business
objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology
media, research, and events company.
All product and company names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders.
CONTACT: Nathaniel Martinez, IDC
Tel: +44 (0) 208 987 7188
e-mail: nmartinez@idc.com
WWW: http://www.idc.com
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Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd.
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