Server sales decline as firms opt for hyperscale and cloud

Hyperscale datacentres, cloud and virtualisation are proving more popular with companies than servers when it comes to leveraging their applications, according to new research from Gartner.

Research from the IT firm shows that a downturn in server sales is continuing, with all regions (with exception of Asia-Pacific) showing a decline.

Gartner’s latest quarterly server report shows that worldwide server revenues 1.9 per cent year-on-year, with shipments falling by 0.6 per cent in the final quarter of 2016.

Globally, server shipments increased by 0.1 per cent, but revenues from the sector fell by 2.7 per cent.

"There were some distinct factors that produced the final results for 2016," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner.

"Hyperscale data centres (eg Facebook, Google) grew and, at the same time, drove some significant server replacements. Enterprises grew at a lower rate as they continued to leverage server applications through virtualisation and in some cases, service providers in the cloud."

Research published last year by Synergy Research Group showed the number of hyperscale data centres is set to reach the 300 mark, driven by a slew of data centre openings by Amazon, Google and Alibaba.

By the end of 2018, there are set to me more than 400 hyperscale data centres, according to Synergy’s chief analyst and research director John Dinsdale.