Blade servers were among the few bright spots in an otherwise tepid server market, according to analysts. Research firm IDC recorded a quarterly growth rate of just 0.5 per cent for the entire server market. This is the lowest growth rate recorded by the analyst firm in more than a year.
Hardest hit was IBM. The company held on to the top spot in market share, but saw its lead over HP dwindle and its revenues drop 8.5 per cent over last year.
Much of Big Blue's troubles stem from a nose dive in System z server sales, claims IDC. Analysts suggested that consumers were holding off on purchasing the high-end systems in anticipation of a new line of servers from IBM.
Overall, analysts say that the high-end market lost more than 14.5 per cent in revenue compared to the same quarter in 2006. That is the largest decline seen in more than five years.
There were some bright spots, however. IDC reported that blade servers continued their rise, growing revenues by more than 41 per cent over last year and taking in more than $1bn for the first time ever.
IDC senior research analyst Jed Scaramella noted that blades now account for one tenth of all shipments and remain the fastest growing portion of the server market.
"2007 is turning out to be a monumental year for server blades," he said.
"The competitive space will only prove to become more interesting as vendors continue to roll out new blade initiatives."
Leading the blade charge was HP. The company took a 42.1 per cent share of the blade server market and saw revenues grow by 79.6 per cent from 2006.
Overall, HP experienced a 10.3 per cent growth in revenues and saw its market share grow to 28.6 per cent, just 1.4 per cent shy of IBM. Dell, Sun, and Fujitsu rounded out the top five vendors.
info: vnunet.com
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