Market for Conventional Server Hardware Is Up
Contrary to popular predictions, the enterprise server market really isn't shrinking. According to the latest report from IDG's Worldwide Quarterly Tracker series for servers, Ethernet switches, and routers, the market for server hardware was up 6.1 percent in the second quarter of 2015 compared with the second quarter of 2014. Overall server sales were $13.48 billion.
Conventional wisdom has held that the growth of the cloud has reduced the demand for conventional hardware, but server sales remain strong. Part of the explanation might be the rise of enterprise local cloud technologies that depend on virtualization but run on local hardware. Another possibility is an overall uptick in business activity. In any case, the predictions of flight to the cloud seem premature.
The market for Ethernet switches and routers was also up over last year. See the IDG press release or the report in the Register for more information.