SERVERS – good news
IDC says global server shipments grew 18.4% year over year to nearly 3.2 million units in the second quarter of 2020 (2Q20). Server revenue jumped 19.8% to US$24 billion during the same period.
In terms of server class, volume server revenue was up 22.1% to $18.7 billion, while midrange server revenue declined 0.4% to about $3.3 billion and high-end systems grew by 44.1% to $1.9 billion.
"We certainly see areas of reduced spending, but this was offset by investments made by large cloud builders and enterprises targeting solutions that support shifting infrastructure needs caused by the global pandemic. Investments in Asia/Pacific were also particularly strong, growing 31% year over year," said Paul Maguranis, senior research analyst, Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies at IDC.
STORAGE – revenue drops despite rise in capacity shipped
The external storage market recorded a less than stellar performance with sales declining 5% year over year to just under US$6.3 billion during 2Q20.
According to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker total external OEM storage capacity shipped was up 5.1% year over year to 17.1 exabytes during the quarter.
Also on a positive note, revenue generated by the group of original design manufacturers (ODMs) selling directly to hyperscale datacentres grew 64.1% year over year to $7.0 billion in 2Q20, while capacity shipped grew 122.1% year over year to 74.8 exabytes.
Total capacity shipments for the market (External OEM + ODM Direct + Server-Based Storage) increased 59.7% to 124.6 exabytes.
The revenue decline is a continuation of the first quarter framed against the backdrop of COVID-19 wrecking havoc with businesses worldwide. Sebastian Lagana, research manager, Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies at IDC, said the bright spot in the market as cloud builders and hyperscalers ramped up capacity during the quarter in order to support a strong demand environment from both corporate and consumer markets.
“While enterprise appetite for infrastructure provision from large cloud service providers remains a core driver of the success of ODMs, consumer demand for services from content delivery networks and collaboration tools remains robust and is driving purchasing from a long tail of providers," said Lagana.
