HPE loses server ground as Dell EMC and IBM prosper

Refresh cycles for IBM disrupt the market, while ODMs continue to increase market share

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) lost EMEA server share to the market challengers in Q4 last year, according to IDC.

The analyst's research claims that HPE's market share fell 4.5 percentage points year on year to 28 per cent.

Dell EMC and IBM saw growth of 3.8 percentage points and 4.4 percentage points respectively, while Lenovo and collective ODM players also saw their market shares increase (see the full table below).

Eckhardt Fischer, senior research analyst at IDC, said IBM had unsettled the market with server refreshes.

"This is the result of IBM performing strongly in the quarter, driven heavily by refresh cycles in both its Power and Z systems," he explained.

"Other larger OEMs saw increases in revenue this quarter as the prices for memory components pushed the European market to increase average selling."

HPE also lagged behind when it came to revenue growth. The vendor's server turnover was up 1.1 per cent, but Dell EMC saw a jump of 43.6 per cent, while IBM's income rocketed 62.6 per cent.

Server ODMs continued to gain ground on the tier-one vendors, driven by demand from hyperscalers including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple.

Kamil Gregor, senior research analyst at IDC, added: "Several of their new datacentre buildings that opened in 2015 and 2016 have reached peak capacity now, which translated into slower quarter-on-quarter growth.

"We are expecting ODM growth to further accelerate in 2018 and 2019 with a new wave of datacentre launches, including Apple in Denmark and Ireland, AWS in Sweden, and Google in Belgium."

Q4 EMEA server figures