The server market declined by almost a third in 2009, but will
show a small recovery in 2010 as businesses build blade server data
infrastructures, according to analyst IDC.
IT budgets in business have been slashed and major projects
postponed as
CIOs battle to cut costs.
But the fall in demand for servers may have bottomed out, said
IDC.
The market analyst firm predicted the market for x86 servers
would return to single digit growth by the first quarter in 2010,
largely due to demand for blade servers and consolidated
infrastructures.
"Increased consolidation, rationalisation needs and budget
constraints within companies will play a major role in shaping
server demand," said Giorgio Nebuloni, research analyst, European
Systems and Infrastructure Solutions.
IDS predicts that sales of non-x86 servers, mainly supplied by
IBM and Sun, will make a decisive comeback in the second half of
2010 because of pent-up demand for IT departments to scale up their
IT systems.
Volume servers will experience a more gradual growth pattern,
with revenue slowly picking up from $1.6bn in the second quarter
2009 to $1.7bn in the third quarter 2010, returning to positive
growth in the second quarter of 2010. Mid-range and high-end
servers will not return to annual revenue increases until the first
quarter of 2011, IDC said.