Western European Blade Server Forecast and Analysis, 2003-2007

SUMMARY

This study gives a complete overview of the server blade market in Western Europe, detailing the progress of the market so far, the future outlook for the market and the strategies of each of the vendors involved. Undoubtedly, today's business requirements are driving the server market towards a "utility computing" model. The server blade was created in 2001, but the growth expected initially was stunted by various factors but most prominently the collapse of the global economy.

The value proposition of the server blade has changed significantly since it first emerged as a new form factor and it was the communication of the new value proposition that vendors found difficult in the face of continuous restrictions in IT budgets. According to Daniel Fleischer, senior research analyst, European Enterprise Server Solutions, "After much hard work on the part of the vendors the server blade value proposition is now understood by the enterprise sector and with vendors introducing 2- and 4-way blades the form factor is now considered a viable enterprise platform. In particular the emphasis on blades has shifted from a message of density to compute power and manageability as vendors seek to align infrastructure products more closely with business processes and indoing so demonstrate compelling ROI arguments. High growth can be expected to continue throughout 2004 as the server blade rides on the back of renewed replacement cycle activities following on from Y2K."

TABLE OF CONTENTS

IDC Opinion

In This Study

• Methodology
• Executive Summary

Situation Overview

• Introduction
• New Technology Drivers
• The Server Blade Concept
  • Figure: The Evolution of the Server Blade Concept
  • Figure: Economies of Scale in Highly Dense Server Environments
• The Next Step?
  • Figure: The Road To Utility Computing
• The Early European Blade Server Market
  • Table: Western European Blade Server Shipments and Factory Revenues and Growth, 1Q02-3Q03
  • Figure: Western Europe Server Blade Market (Units), 1Q02?3Q03
  • Figure: Western Europe Server Blade Market by Vendor (Units), 1Q02?3Q03
• End-User perspectives ? The Situation Today, New Technologies and Form Factors
• New Technologies
  • Table: End-User Issues in New Technology Investment, 2002 Versus 2003
• Form Factor
  • Figure: End-User Perspectives on Form factor, 2002 Versus 2003
• Vendor Product Profiles
• Vendor Strategies
• Hewlett-Packard
  • Table: HP Pre-Packaged Server Blade Solutions
• DELL
• RLX Technologies
• IBM
• Fujitsu Siemens
• Sun Microsystems
• Egenera

Future Outlook

• Forecast and Assumptions
  • Table: Western European Blade Server Medium-Term Unit Shipment and End-User Spending Forecast, 2003-2007
  • Figure: Western Europe Server Forecast by Form Factor (Units), 2003?2007
  • Figure: Western Europe Server Blade Forecast by CPU Capacity (Units), 2002?2007
  • Figure: Western Europe Server Blade Forecast by Operating System (End-User Revenue), 2003?2007
  • Table: Key Forecast Assumptions for Western Europe, 2003-2007

Essential Guidance

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• Related Research
• Appendix
  • Table: A Selection of Vendor Product Portfolios and Features
• Synopsis