Dell Overtakes HPE As Worldwide Server Share Leader As Market Reaches All-Time High

Top Five Server Market-Share Leaders

Dell has taken the lead in worldwide server market share from Hewlett Packard Enterprise as the two rivals battled for supremacy in the first quarter of 2018, according to new data from research firm IDC.

Worldwide server revenue for first-quarter 2018 reached an all-time high of $18.8 billion, representing a 38.6 percent increase year over year. "Hyper-scale growth continued to drive server volume demand in the first quarter," said Sanjay Medvitz, senior research analyst for servers and storage at IDC, in a statement. All of the top five global market-share leaders grew sales by double digits year over year during the quarter.

Here are the top five leaders in the global server market for the first quarter of 2018.

Q1 2018 Market Overview

Total Server Revenue: $18.8 billion

Total Server Shipments: 2.7 million

The overall server market continues to strengthen with its third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, generating more revenue than any other first quarter on record, according to IDC. There were approximately 2.7 million servers shipped worldwide in the quarter, up 20.7 percent year over year. Total server sales increased 38.6 percent to $18.8 billion compared with the same quarter one year ago. Demand for x86 servers increased 41 percent year over year to $17.4 billion, while sales for non-x86 servers grew 15.5 percent to $1.4 billion.

IDC said the high server demand is being driven by a marketwide enterprise refresh cycle, strong demand from cloud service providers, increased use of servers to build software-defined infrastructure, and growing deployments of next-generation workloads.

ODM Direct

Market Share: 21.5%

Units Shipped: 691,100

The ODM Direct group of vendors captured a total of $4.59 billion in server revenue in the quarter, up 57 percent year over year. The group shipped a total of 691,000 servers, an increase of 56 percent compared with the same quarter one year ago. "While various OEMs are finding success in this space, ODMs remain the primary beneficiary from the quickly growing hyper-scale server demand, now accounting for roughly a quarter of overall server market revenue and shipments," said IDC's Medvitz.

5. Cisco

Market Share: 5.2%

Units Shipped: Less Than 150,000

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking king generated $980 million in server sales during the quarter, up 19 percent year over year. However, even with the revenue growth Cisco's server share fell from 6.1 percent in the first quarter 2017 to 5.2 percent. Cisco did not rank in IDC's top five vendor list in regard to the number of total server units shipped, meaning Cisco shipped less than 150,000 servers.

4. IBM

Market Share: 5.3%

Units Shipped: Less Than 150,000

IBM posted solid server revenue growth of 33 percent to $989 million, up from $744 million in first-quarter 2017. The Armonk, N.Y.-based company's market share slightly decreased year over year from 5.5 percent to 5.3 percent. IBM did not rank in IDC's top five vendor list in regard to the number of total server units shipped, meaning IBM shipped less than 150,000 servers.

3. Lenovo

Market Share: 5.8%

Units Shipped: 160,700

Lenovo came in third place for server revenue and fourth place for the amount of servers shipped in the quarter. The China-based vendor increased server sales by 50 percent year over year to $1.09 billion. Lenovo shipped a total of 160,700 units during the quarter, up 10 percent from the 146,200 servers it sold in the first quarter of 2017. Lenovo servers accounted for 6 percent of the total number of units shipped in the quarter.

2. Hewlett Packard Enterprise/New H3C

Market Share: 18.6%

Units Shipped: 430,900

HPE dropped to the No. 2 spot in worldwide server sales as the amount of HPE units shipped fell 6.4 percent year over year to 430,900. Market share for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company decreased from 21.1 percent in first-quarter 2017 to 18.6 percent. However, HPE's server sales did increase 22 percent to $3.51 billion year over year. HPE share and growth rate includes revenue from the New H3C Group joint venture in China, which began in May 2016.

1. Dell

Market Share: 19.1%

Units Shipped: 555,800

Dell captured the gold for server market share in the quarter, generating $3.59 billion in revenue, up a whopping 50 percent year over year. The Round Rock, Texas-based infrastructure giant's market share increased from 17.6 percent in first-quarter 2017 to 19.1 percent. Dell shipped a total of 555,800 units, representing 19 percent growth year over year in the amount of servers shipped. Dell servers accounted for 20.6 percent of the total number of units shipped in the quarter.