Server shipments buck economic downturn

Fears of a recession have not affected worldwide server shipments

Worldwide server shipments have continued to grow despite worsening economic conditions, according to the latest figures from research firm Gartner.

For the second quarter of 2008, server shipments increased by 12.2 per cent over the same period in 2007, driven by an increase in x86 server upgrades, data centre build-outs and growth in emerging markets, Gartner said.

However, shipments of Unix-based Risc and Itanium systems fell by 7.9 per cent.

HP was the market leader in terms of volume with over 700,000 units shipped, an increase of 8.7 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Second-placed Dell achieved an increase of nearly 25 per cent compared with previous figures, from 464,650 to 577,163.

IBM was third in terms of unit shipments, but achieved the largest revenue from server sales due to an increase in sales of its high-end System p and System z brands, according to Gartner.

Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu-Siemens showed a modest increase in unit shipments, but a slight decline in revenue from server sales.