Indian businesses go on a server-buying spree, largely with HPE

Even non-x86 sales grew and SPARC is still selling — but storage sales slipped

Indian businesses went on a server-shopping spree in the first quarter of 2021, says analyst firm IDC.

The analyst yesterday released a breakdown of its Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker for India and revealed year-over-year revenue increase of 33.8 per cent, with 2021’s Q1 haul of $310.6M handily topping the $232.1M from the same period in 2020.

IDC said growth mainly came from rack-optimised servers, which saw revenue growth of 49.3 per cent year-on-year. The resource sector, healthcare providers, and telecommunications outfits generated the highest revenue growth rates, at 177.3 per cent, 176.6 per cent, and 132.7 per cent, respectively.

HPE topped the revenue charts, with 35.8 per cent of revenue — or $98.8M – of the x86 market. Dell Technologies managed revenue share of 26.5 per cent with its $73M in takings. Lenovo and Cisco brought up the rear, with revenue of $21.7M and $19.0M respectively.

IBM topped Cisco’s take, and did it with non-x86 servers — a market that grew 1.8 per cent year-on-year in Q1. Big Blue owned 57.6 per cent of the $34.8M market for servers without Intel inside, and earned $20.1M in revenue for its trouble.

Oracle and HPE won 11.8 per cent and 10.5 per cent of non-x86 revenue respectively, meaning there’s about three million dollars’ worth of new SPARC kit humming away somewhere in India. Maybe that HPE spend was the last of the Itaniums?

News was less bright for external storage sales in India, as IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker for Q1 2021 found a six per cent year-over-year revenue decline for vendors.

IDC attributed the dip to telecommunications, media, and government buyers staying out of the market for the quarter, but predicted the market will bounce back thanks to ongoing digital transformation projects requiring responsive infrastructure.

Dell remains the market leader, as measured by revenue, in India. However, the company’s revenue share dipped while HPE, NetApp, and Lenovo bounced.

The nation spent $83M on storage in the quarter, 27 per cent of which went to Dell and just over 20 per cent to HPE. ®