Lenovo led EMEA server sales, Dell remains atop of the North American server market, while HP keeps gaining momentum. These are some of the top results in the latest release from Intersect360 Research’s Site Census series.
“In our history of running the annual HPC User Site Census survey, this was the first time HP was the top-named vendor. In previous years it would have been IBM or Dell, but with IBM selling its x86-server business to Lenovo, there is a lot of shake-up in the relative position of vendors. Dell and HP had almost the same revenue share in 2014, and HP had the most installations in this year’s report. Cray also had a strong year, as we expected,” Addison Snell, CEO of Intersect360 Research, commented.
The HPC User Site Census: System Suppliers report was released last month. Conducted by Christopher G. Willard, Addison Snell, Laura Segervall, and Michael Feldman, it provides an in-depth look at server systems installed at a broad range of HPC user sites.
An array of users were surveyed about their current computer system installations, storage systems, networks, middleware, and applications software. Responses from 454 different sites were received and the report was based on 771 supplier-named systems.
Of all the systems installed at the surveyed sites, Dell accounts for 15.6 percent of the total. Following closely is HP with 13.9 percent, Lenovo with 11.5 percent, SGI with 6.9 percent, and Cray with 5.7 percent. These five vendors account for 53.6 percent of the total.
According to the results, prior to 2010 the majority of servers installed were developed in-house (19.8 percent). However, as the years progress, that number begins to drop and commercial vendors like Dell and HP start to take over. While there are many spikes over the years from different vendors, like Cray in 2011 (10.6 percent), it’s evident from the report that Dell currently has a slight lead in this area.
In the academic sector, Dell has the highest share with 17.6 percent while HP and Lenovo trail closely with 13 percent apiece. HP has a commanding lead in the commercial sector, thanks to the manufacturing and energy industries accounting for the majority of the reported installations. In-house and generic servers follow with 17.2 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively. In the government sector, more specialized systems are usually required and for named suppliers, Cray is the front-runner.
Unsurprisingly, Lenovo’s ascendance in EMEA is attributed to IBM installations it inherited buying IBM’s x86 business. In-house servers hold the majority of shares in the Asia-Pacific region while HP and SGI follow closely behind. For all regions Dell comes out on top but with HP and Lenovo trailing closely, for named suppliers.
“In future years, we really want to watch how well Lenovo defends all of the HPC accounts it inherited from IBM, and also how well it wins new ones. Lenovo has the chance to be one of the top HPC vendors worldwide. In addition, we want to see how shares continue to shift in Europe, particularly with Bull now part of Atos,” said Snell.
The report concludes with information on server nodes installed by supplier. For the 693 systems in this category, the combined total of nodes equals 140,960 and the average is 203.4. This is the first time in at least five years that HP has had the most nodes installed with 22,100. Lenovo follows with 20,072 and Dell, while having the highest number of systems in the group, came in at 19,284 nodes. The report also notes that suppliers with fewer systems can deliver systems with high node counts; for example, NEC and Atipa.
Intersect360 reports that although Dell and HP were expected to be the top two system suppliers for the sites surveyed, HP’s strength was surprising and its momentum seems to be growing – more HP systems were acquired in 2014 and after than any of the other vendors. In addition, HP’s share improved in every sector. While Dell retains the top spot with the most systems in the sites surveyed, that top spot could be vulnerable with HP nipping at its heels.
For more information about this report and others, visit http://www.intersect360.com/industry/reports.php.