WW Integrated Infrastructure and Certified Reference Systems Revenue Decreasing 11% Y/Y in 3Q16 at $1.4 Billion – IDC

According to the International Data Corporation‘s Worldwide Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker, the worldwide converged systems market increased revenue 1.7% year over year to $2.6 billion during 3Q16.

The market consumed 1.4EB of new storage capacity during the quarter, which was up a moderate 12.5% compared to the same period a year ago.

“The converged systems ecosystem is itself converging at the supplier and product level,” said Eric Sheppard, research director, enterprise storage and converged systems. “On the product side, IDC finds the strongest growth coming from offerings that have robust data services, high levels of automation, and strong lifecycle management capabilities.”

Converged Systems Segments
This converged systems market view offers four segments: integrated infrastructure, certified reference systems, integrated platforms, and hyperconverged systems.

• Integrated infrastructure and certified reference systems are pre-integrated, vendor-certified systems containing server hardware, disk storage systems, networking equipment, and basic element/systems management software.
• Integrated platforms are integrated systems that are sold with additional pre-integrated packaged software and customized system engineering optimized to enable such functions as application development software, databases, testing, and integration tools.
• Hyperconverged systems collapse core storage and compute functionality into a single, highly virtualized solution. A key characteristic of hyperconverged systems that differentiate these solutions from other integrated systems is their ability to provide all compute and storage functions through the same server-based resources.

During the third quarter of 2016, the combined integrated infrastructure and certified reference systems market generated revenues of $1.36 billion, which represented a year-over-year decrease of 11.4% and 52.2% of the total market. Dell Technologies was the largest supplier of this combined market segment with $670.9 million in sales, or 49.4% share of the market segment. A large part of this decline can be attributed to the discontinuation of the VSPEX certified reference systems.

Top 3 Vendors, WW Integrated Infrastructure and Certified Reference Systems, 3Q16
(revenue in $ million)

(Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker, December 22, 2016)

* Note: Dell Technologies represents the combined revenues for Dell and EMC sales for all quarters shown.

Integrated platform sales declined 9.7% year over year during the third quarter of 2016, generating $671.8 million worth of sales. This amounted to 25.8% of the total revenue. Oracle was the top-ranked supplier of integrated platforms during the quarter, generating revenues of $307.9 million and capturing a 45.8% share of the market segment.

Top 3 Vendors, WW Integrated Platforms, 3Q16
(revenue in $ million)
(Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker, December 22, 2016)

Hyperconverged sales grew 104.3% year over year during the third quarter of 2016, generating $570.5 million worth of sales. This amounted to 22% of the total market value. Please note the above hyperconverged systems values, like the other product categories listed here, exclude revenue from support and maintenance contracts.

(Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker, December 22, 2016)

Taxonomy Notes:
IDC defines converged and hyperconverged systems as pre-integrated, vendor-certified systems containing server hardware, disk storage systems, networking equipment, and basic element/systems management software. Systems not sold with all four of these components are not counted within this tracker. Specific to management software, IDC includes embedded or integrated management and control software optimized for the auto discovery, provisioning and pooling of physical and virtual compute, storage and networking resources shipped as part of the core, standard integrated system. Numbers in this press release may not sum due to rounding.