IBM suffers in integrated platforms market

Big Blue sees sales plummet 44 per cent in the market, as rival HP enjoys a near-54 per cent boost

IBM saw its sales in the integrated platforms market slump by almost half in Q1, according to IDC, which pointed to a bumper quarter for HP in the space.

Overall, the integrated infrastructure and platforms market revenue jumped 8.3 per cent annually to $2.1bn (£1.3bn) in Q1. It generated 945 petabytes of storage capacity – up 45.7 per cent on the year-ago period.

IDC distinguishes between integrated platforms and integrated infrastructure - the former is described as "integrated systems that are sold with additional pre-integrated packaged software and customised system engineering" while the latter is defined as "systems designed for general purpose".

In the integrated platforms market, Oracle maintained its position at the top, increasing its share from 47.8 per cent to 51.9 per cent in Q1 thanks to a 5.8 per cent sales boost taking its revenue in the market to $391.9m.

IBM retained its spot in second place in the market, but a 44.2 per cent sales slump to $42.35m saw its share shrink from 9.8 per cent last year to 5.6 per cent. HP fared much better in the quarter, with its sales jumping by more than half (53.7 per cent) annually to $23.79m, taking its share from two per cent to 3.1 per cent.

Overall, the intagrated platforms market shrunk 2.5 per cent annually to $755.44m in Q1.

The integrated infrastructure market, however, was up 15.5 per cent over the same period to $1.37m.

VCE led the market, taking 24.1 per cent share after enjoying a 29.3 per cent sales boost to $328.9m. Cisco/NetApp came in close behind VCE in second place, grabbing 22.6 per cent share after sales jumped 14.5 per cent annually to $307.32m.

HP repeated its success in the integrated platforms market in the integrated infrastructure segment too, with a 40.4 per cent sales boost to $242.58m, taking its share up to 17.8 per cent from 14.6 per cent a year ago.

Kevin Permenter, IDC's senior research analyst for enterprise servers, said: "The integrated systems market continues to evolve and is entering a new phase of maturation.

"It is a highly dynamic, competitive landscape where the past 12 months have seen key competitors undergo major reorganisation, rebranding and realignment; all with the intent to strategically position themselves in one of the faster-growing segments of the datacentre infrastructure market."