Could the server market be bouncing back?

Two new analyst reports are suggesting that the troubled server market is starting to get back on its feet.

The server industry may have been taking a battering over the last few quarters as the recession called time on the rip and replace culture of the data centre. But, that looks set to change now, according to the reports.

Both Gartner and IDC have seen growth in worldwide server shipments for the fourth quarter of 2009, with the former claiming a rise 4.5 per cent and the latter offering a more modest 1.9 per cent climb year on year.

But, whilst shipments may be beginning to bounce back, revenues for the hardware side of things were still dropping quite heavily.

Gartner claimed a revenue decline of 3.2 per cent in the market, whilst IDC said it was down 3.9 per cent year on year, equating to $13 billion.

IDC was positive about the results as, although it may have been the sixth consecutive year-on-year decline, it was the second quarter in a row to experience a rise in revenues.

Matt Eastwood, group vice president of IDC's Enterprise Server group, said in a statement: "Market conditions improved significantly in the fourth quarter as the marketplace transitioned from recent stability to growth in several critical server segments."

He added: "Customers are actively re-evaluating their IT needs and refreshing their infrastructures, and the fourth quarter represents the beginning of a market inflection."

IBM remained the company with leading market share for servers at 32.7 per cent a decrease of one per cent with HP in second place on 31.3 per cent and Dell taking the third spot with 12.1 per cent.