Worldwide server shipments jump 17 per cent

The worldwide server market returned to growth last year as companies sanctioned purchases that had been put on hold and invested in x86 systems, according to new figures from Gartner.

The analyst firm reported that the fourth quarter of 2010 saw a return to growth and contributed to a full-year 17 per cent increase in shipments and 13 per cent revenue growth.

Intel and AMD releases pushed the market along, according to the firm, encouraging spend before the year end.

Jeffrey Hewitt, a research vice president at Gartner, said that pent-up x86-based server demand spurred global growth in 2010.

"The introduction of new processors from Intel and AMD towards the end of 2009 helped fuel a pretty significant replacement cycle of servers that had been maintained in place during the economic downturn in 2009," he said.

"Ongoing blade server growth and the introduction of 'skinless' servers in the x86 segment also helped push 2010 results into double-digit growth rates, despite ongoing constraints in RISC/Itanium Unix platforms."

Hewitt added that the introduction of new mainframe platforms from IBM helped to drive increases in the mainframe segment, with 68.3 per cent revenue growth for IBM's System Z platforms in the fourth quarter.

IBM was the leader in server sales, and reported $5.2bn (£3.2bn) in revenue in the fourth quarter, giving the company more than a third of total global server revenues, and representing a minor 2.8 per cent increase.

IBM also benefited from increased enterprise interest in its System Z and X product lines.

HP is in second place in terms of revenue and took 31.3 per cent of the market, around 1.5 per cent less than IBM. Dell has just over 12 per cent, and Oracle is in fourth place with 7.6 per cent.

HP was the leader in terms of shipments, and saw an increase of 6.9 per cent.

Across-the-board x86 server demand had a positive effect, and shipments increased by seven per cent and revenues by 20 per cent as companies replaced older systems.

Increased interest in blade systems also had a positive impact on sales, and Gartner reported a 20 per cent increase in revenue and a 12.6 per cent increase in shipments.

Again IBM and HP dominate this market, but Dell and Cisco achieved some modest gains, according to the figures.

The market will slow down again this year as x86 server replacement has probably seen its peak, Gartner said, while the push for more consolidation and virtualisation will also have an impact.