Worldwide Server Market Revenue Grew 19.8% Year Over Year in the Second Quarter of 2020, According to IDC

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.- According to the International Data Corporation (IDCWorldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, vendor revenue in the worldwide server market grew 19.8% year over year to $24.0 billion during the second quarter of 2020 (2Q20). Worldwide server shipments grew 18.4% year over year to nearly 3.2 million units in 2Q20.

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.

“Global demand for enterprise servers was strong during the second quarter of 2020,” said Paul Maguranis, senior research analyst, Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies at IDC. “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.”

Overall Server Market Standings, by Company

The worldwide server market ended 2Q20 with a statistical tie* between, and Dell Technologies for the number 1 position. HPE/New H3C Group finished the quarter with market share of 14.9% while Dell Technologies captured a 13.9% share of worldwide revenues. Inspur/Inspur Power Systems took third place with 10.5% share and impressive 77% year-over-year growth. Lenovo and IBM tied* for fourth with 6.1% and 6.0% share, respectively. The ODM Direct group of vendors accounted for 28.8% of total server revenue at $6.9 billion with year-over-year growth of 63.4% and delivered 34.4% of all units shipped during the quarter.

Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Server Vendor Revenue, Market Share, and Growth, Second Quarter of 2020 (Revenues are in US$ Millions)
Company 2Q20 Revenue 2Q20 Market Share 2Q19 Revenue 2Q19 Market Share 2Q20/2Q19 Revenue Growth
T1. HPE/New H3C Groupa* $3,582.4 14.9% $3,646.4 18.2% -1.8%
T1. Dell Technologies $3,339.8 13.9% $3,793.3 18.9% -12.0%
3. Inspur/Inspur Power Systemsb $2,532.9 10.5% $1,431.0 7.1% 77.0%
T4. Lenovo* $1,466.6 6.1% $1,212.3 6.0% 21.0%
T4. IBM* $1,449.7 6.0% $1,188.6 5.9% 22.0%
ODM Direct $6,917.6 28.8% $4,232.7 21.1% 63.4%
Rest of Market $4,748.1 19.8% $4,563.5 22.7% 4.0%
Total $24,037.1 100.0% $20,067.8 100% 19.8%
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, September 8, 2020

Notes:

* IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide server market when there is a difference of one percent or less in the share of revenues or shipments among two or more vendors.

a Due to the existing joint venture between HPE and the New H3C Group, IDC is reporting external market share on a global level for HPE and New H3C Group as “HPE/New H3C Group” starting from 2Q 2016.

b Due to the existing joint venture between IBM and Inspur, IDC is reporting external market share on a global level for Inspur and Inspur Power Systems as “Inspur/Inspur Power Systems” starting from 3Q 2018.

 

 

Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Server Unit Shipments, Market Share, and Growth, Second Quarter of 2020
Company 2Q20 Unit Shipments 2Q20 Market Share 2Q19 Unit Shipments 2Q19 Market Share 2Q20/2Q19 Unit Growth
T1. HPE/New H3C Groupa* 456,642 14.3% 443,632 16.5% 2.9%
T1. Dell Technologies* 432,556 13.6% 479,941 17.8% -9.9%
3. Inspur/Inspur Power Systemsb 353,329 11.1% 231,404 8.6% 52.7%
4. Lenovo 193,086 6.1% 181,165 6.7% 6.6%
T5. Supermicro* 152,411 4.8% 139,289 5.2% 9.4%
T5. Huawei* 138,849 4.4% 116,994 4.3% 18.7%
ODM Direct 1,096,765 34.4% 678,940 25.2% 61.5%
Rest of Market 364,257 11.4% 420,092 15.6% -13.3%
Total 3,187,894 100.0% 2,691,457 100.0% 18.4%
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, September 8, 2020

Notes:

* IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide server market when there is a difference of one percent or less in the share of revenues or shipments among two or more vendors.

a Due to the existing joint venture between HPE and the New H3C Group, IDC is reporting external market share on a global level for HPE and New H3C Group as “HPE/New H3C Group” starting from 2Q 2016.

b Due to the existing joint venture between IBM and Inspur, IDC is reporting external market share on a global level for Inspur and Inspur Power Systems as “Inspur/Inspur Power Systems” starting from 3Q 2018.

Top Server Market Findings

On a geographic basis, the Asia/Pacific region performed very well this quarter growing at a combined 31.%. China outperformed the competitive set, growing 39.8% year over year, followed by Japan at 24.9%, and the rest of the region (Asia/Pacific excluding Japan and China) at 13.4%. The United States also grew 25.0% year over year while Canada declined 11.2%. Latin America was able to grow 15.6% while Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) declined 5.8% year over year.

Revenue generated from x86 servers increased 17.4% in 2Q20 to $21.6 billion. Non-x86 servers grew revenues 47.4% year over year to around $2.4 billion.

IDC’s Server Taxonomy

IDC’s Server Taxonomy maps the eleven price bands within the server market into three price ranges: volume servers, midrange servers and high-end servers. The revenue data presented in this release is stated as vendor revenue for a server system. IDC presents data in vendor revenue to determine market share position. Vendor revenue represents those dollars recognized by multi-user system and server vendors for ISS (initial server shipment) and upgrade units sold through direct and indirect channels and includes the following embedded server components: Frame or cabinet and all cables, processors, memory, communications boards, operating system software, other bundled software and initial internal and external disk shipments.

IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker is a quantitative tool for analyzing the global server market on a quarterly basis. The Tracker includes quarterly unit shipments and revenues (both vendor revenue and value of shipments), segmented by vendor, family, model, region, operating system, price band, CPU type, and architecture. The Server Tracker is part of the Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker, which provides a holistic total addressable market view of the five key enabling infrastructure technologies for the datacenter (servers, external enterprise storage systems, purpose-built appliances: HCI and PBBA, and datacenter switches).

For more information about IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, please contact Lidice Fernandez at 305-351-3057 or lfernandez@idc.com.

About IDC Trackers

IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC’s Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools.