Cloud computing casts shadow on server sales

According to the IDC research firm's 2012 market blueprint, the projected sales decline of 2.1% next year will worsen to 6.1%.

The UK server market is expected to shrink next year as the cycle of enterprise systems is nearing completion and more and more small and medium-sized enterprises are turning to cloud computing rather than buying hardware.

Nathaniel Matiz, director of IDC Research, said the IMF's weak growth in Western Europe was expected to be a comprehensive manifestation of the X86 slump caused by poor market conditions.

Matiz said in an interview that "small and medium enterprises are transitioning to the cloud at a faster rate than we expected because they have no money to invest in the IT infrastructure, so the server spending budget is bound to be replaced".

The turnaround period in the enterprise-wide market, especially when financial institutions loosened the purse after the Great Depression of 2009, is nearing its end, analysts added.

Matiz says large and medium-sized enterprises see a good return on virtualization, and many enterprise users who invest in high spec systems are starting to increase the input of virtual servers instead of buying physical servers.

"These factors have an impact on server hardware sales," Matiz stressed.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)