IDC declares Linux is red hot in the server market

Johannesburg, 13 Apr 2000

According to the latest release of IDC`s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, Linux server shipments increased 166% to 72,422 units in Q499 from Q498, representing the fastest-growing operating environment in the server market.

"Even though Linux represents a small portion (approximately 6%) of the entry server market in unit shipments, it will become an important area of growth within the server market as more and more branded vendors come out with Linux server offerings and as end users select Linux servers not just because of price but because of reliability, availability, and performance as well," said Hoang Nguyen, senior research analyst for IDC`s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker.

For the quarter, Compaq held tight to its number-one position worldwide with $84 million in factory revenue. IBM is in the second position with $33 million. Dell was third with $24 million, and Hewlett-Packard was close behind with $23 million. (In terms of unit shipments, Hewlett-Packard finished third slightly ahead of Dell.) Fujitsu Siemens rounded off the top five vendors with $13 million.

In a recent IDC survey of 200 Linux users (Linux Servers: What`s the Hype, and What`s the Reality IDC #B21610), the majority of participants estimated that their Linux servers offered at least 4 9s in availability, which translates to less than one hour of unexpected downtime per year. The study also found that Linux servers are overwhelmingly deployed to support Web applications, such as Web hosting, proxy/caching services, and email. More than 40% of all spending on Linux servers is for Internet-related applications. Linux servers are now embedded in the Internet infrastructure and are strong competition for NT and Unix entry servers, said Michelle Bailey, research manager for IDC`s Commercial Systems and Servers program.

IDC defines the entry market as systems shipped with prices from $0 to $100K.

IDC`s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker is the premier quantitative tool for analyzing the global server market on a quarterly basis. The Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker includes quarterly shipments (both ISS and upgrades) and revenues (both customer and factory), segmented by vendor, family, model, region, operating system, price band, CPU type and architecture, and channel.

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