Server sales turn vendors into very happy bunnies

SALES OF SERVERS in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are making the vendors rub their hands in glee, according to figures released today by market research firm IDC.

According to the firm, during the second quarter of this year, sales were over $4 billion for the second time in a row, and up six per cent year on year.

IT managers are very interested in virtualisation and Linux and Windows servers in Europe and the rest have stolen market share from Unix, said Nathaniel Martinez, IDC enterprise server programme manager.

X86 server sales generated 50 per cent of factory revenue for the first time, growing 16 per cent year on year. Sales of Windows servers grew by 14 per cent annually but Linux revs were up 34 per cent.

Here is a table showing the top five vendors in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, showing the factory revenues in $ hundreds of mills.

Vendors	Q2 2006	Mkt share	Q2 2007	Mkt share	Growth
HP	$1,271	33%	$1,405	34%	11%
IBM	$1,160	30%	$1,218	30%	5%
Sun	$568	15%	$570	14%	1%
Dell	$299	8%	$363	9%	21%
Fujitsu S	$259	7%	$270	7%	4%
Others	$334	9%	$302	7%	-10%
Total	$3,890	100%	$4,128	100%	6%

IDC said both Dell and Fujitsu Siemens performed strongly, but HP was in the lead as a result of selling loads of Proliants and Integrity servers. µ