Gartner Says Worldwide Server Revenue Grew 25.7 Percent in the Fourth Quarter of 2017, While Shipments Increased 8.8 Percent

9 March 2018 — The worldwide server market continued to grow through 2017 as worldwide server revenue increased 25.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017, while shipments grew 8.8 percent year over year, according to Gartner, Inc. In all of 2017, worldwide server shipments grew 3.1 percent and server revenue increased 10.4 percent compared with full-year 2016.

"Server growth was driven by relatively strong economies for the quarter across the globe," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. "This was a somewhat surprising quarter because the strength was exhibited in a variety of positive server shipment and revenue mixes in almost all geographies."

Regional results were a mixed bag. North America and Asia Pacific were particularly robust demonstrating double-digit growth in revenue (27.6 percent and 35.1 percent, respectively). In terms of shipments, North America grew 9.7 percent and Asia Pacific grew 21.2 percent. EMEA posted strong yearly revenue growth of 19.9 percent while shipments decreased 7.9 percent. Japan grew 4.8 percent in revenue, but declined 5.1 percent in shipments. Latin America was the only region to exhibit a decline in both shipments (negative 4.7 percent) and revenue (negative 2.9 percent) in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) were neck-and-neck in the worldwide server market based on revenue in the fourth quarter of 2017 (see Table 1). Dell EMC ended the year in the No. 1 spot with 19.4 percent market share, followed closely by HPE with 19.3 percent of the market. Dell EMC experienced strong growth in the quarter with 39.9 percent growth. HPE grew 5.5 percent. Inspur Electronics experienced the strongest growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 with 127.8 percent growth.

Table 1: Worldwide: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 4Q17 (U.S. Dollars)

Source: Gartner (March 2018)

In server shipments, Dell EMC maintained the No. 1 position in the fourth quarter of 2017 with 18.2 percent market share (see Table 2). Despite a decline of 12.8 percent in server shipments, HPE secured the second spot with 13.8 percent of the market.

Table 2: Worldwide: Server Vendor Shipments Estimates, 4Q17 (Units)

Source: Gartner (March 2018)

The x86 server market increased in revenue by 23.7 percent, and shipments were up 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Full-Year 2017 Server Market Results

In 2017, worldwide server shipments increased 3.1 percent, while revenue grew 10.4 percent.

"Both enterprises and hyperscale data centers produced positive results globally for the year as end users seek to implement more digital business solutions," said Mr. Hewitt. "The outlook for 2018 suggests that modest growth will continue, with enterprise end users taking an ongoing hybrid approach to both on-premises and public cloud choices based on their server application objectives."

Additional information is available to clients who have access to Gartner's Servers Quarterly Statistics. This database provides worldwide market size and share data by vendor revenue and unit shipments. Segments include region, vendor, vendor brand, subbrand, CPU type, CPU group, max CPU, platform, price band, operating system and distribution channel.

Server market trends and infrastructure and operations will be further discussed at the at the Gartner Global Infrastructure & Operations events April 3-4 in Sao Paulo, April 25-27 in Tokyo, April 30-May 1 in Sydney, May 8-9 in Mumbai, May 15-17 in Orlando, June 5-6 in Frankfurt, and June 26-27 in Mexico City. Follow news and updates from these events on Twitter using #GartnerIO.

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