Q2 Sees Server Growth Despite Midrange Decline

Taking a look at server sales in the second quarter showed that things have stayed pretty steady. This is extra good news considering there was a decreasing demand for midrange systems, according to research firm IDC. During this time, vendors as a whole saw their server revenue increase by 6.1% year over year to $13.5 billion. In addition to that, server shipments also increased by 3.2% from one year ago.

Moreover, revenue in the market also saw an increase on sales of higher-end servers and lower-end servers  used for hyperscale computing. However, the demand for midrange servers decreased by 5.4% year over year. This could be attributed to the recent ending of the x86 server refresh cycle, according to IDC.

In the second quarter, HP contained its top spot as the market leader with a share of 25.4%. The company's density-optimized servers were also in high demand as sales of the products saw a major increase of 119% year over year. Dell came in second place with a 17.5% share as its blade servers and rack servers experienced healthy growth.

Get a Quote on a Laptop Rental for Your Business Event! Rentacomputer.com offers Laptop Rentals to over 1,500 cities in the United States!

Coming in third place was IBM and the company was also the only vendor in the top five to see its market share and revenue fall during the quarterly period. IBM sold off its x86 server business to Chinese PC developer Lenovo last year and, as a result, its server revenue saw a hefty decrease of 32.9% year over year.

On the other hand, Lenovo saw its server revenue completely skyrocket by over 500%, which was a definite benefit from the acquisition deal with IBM. The China-based company is also hoping to become a major player in the server industry as it has begun diversifying away from its traditional market of PC sales. In addition to that, Lenovo also reached a statistical tie with Cisco for fourth place in the server market.

In terms of geography, the United States was the fastest-growing market for servers, with 12.6% year over year growth. The Asia Pacific region, which excludes Japan, came in second to the United States with 12% growth.

With the x86 server refresh cycle over we can probably assume that midrange servers will continue to see a decline. However, with the numbers of growth posted by both the high-end and low-end markets, we can also assume that the server market is going to steadily increase.

Content originally published here

---

Sharing this story on Social Media? Use these hashtags! #Servers #Dell #HP #IBM #IDC #Lenovo #Cisco

Cisco and Fusion-IO Team Up for Flash on UCS Blade Server Systems

Cisco Systems is planning on teaming up with Fusion-IO's flash storage modules later this year which will make the company the latest server manufacturer to offer the technology already available in servers from IBM, Dell and HP. Fusion-IO announced last Monday that this is the first Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partnership the company has had with Cisco.

In addition to that, Fusion-IO will supply its ioMemory modules and software for use in Cisco's B-Series Unified Computing System (UCS) blade servers. Fusion-IO also provided demonstrations at the Cisco Live user conference last week in San Diego.

Fusion-IO is known for making flash storage subsystems that are integrated into servers via a PCle slot as opposed to being located on external storage systems. This type of storage is generally more directly accessible than conventional solid-state disks (SSD) and is also designed to accelerate application performance. Fusion-IO has also developed flash subsystems with HP for use in its BladeSystem c-Class servers and also with IBM for its xSeries line. Dell and SuperMicro servers also benefit from Fusion-IO subsystems as well.

The UCS platform used by Cisco was introduced back in 2009 and has moved up to being the third most incorporated blade server in the world, boasting more than 11,000 customers. Even though there are also rack mount UCS servers, blade servers are still the most utilized of the product line. Cisco uses blade servers in a platform that includes virtualization, network connections, access to storage and management software. Cisco also has storage partnerships with EMS as well as VMware through its VCE alliance and NetApp.

The first Fusion-IO components for UCS will be based on Fusion-IO's ioMemory2 technology, an upgrade that was announced at the beginning of this year and will eventually ship from all of the company's OEM partners. Pricing and available capacities have yet to be unveiled, though you can expect that information to come just before commercial release of the product.

Source: Computer World - Fusion-IO on-server flash coming to Cisco's UCS blade systems

Federal Agents Seize $143m in Fake Networking Equipment

Over the past 5 years Federal authorities have seized more than $143m worth of counterfeit Cisco hardware and labels in a coordinated initiative called Operation Network Raider. The operation depends on the collaboration of several law enforcement agencies including the FBI, Immigration and Customs, and Border Protection Agencies which has so far resulted in more than 700 seizures and 30 felony convictions. Despite costing Cisco and other US networking enterprises millions of dollars in sales and technology, the real threat of these counterfeited routers and networking gear is on the level of national security.

In 2008, Ehab Ashoor attempted to traffic 100 gigabit interface converters that were illegally manufactured in China and contained fraudulent documents indicating they were genuinely produced by Cisco. The equipment was destined for the United States Marine Corps and was intended to be used as communication equipment in Iraq. This month Ashoor was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay Cisco $119,400 in restitution after being found guilty of trying to sell the counterfeit gear to the US Department of Defense. In January 2010 a Chinese resident was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay a restitution of $790,683 for trafficking counterfeit networking gear.

The prospect that our government and business networks may be at risk has propelled law enforcement agencies to work around the clock to crack down on these illegal distribution networks of bogus routers and switches. According to the Customs and Border Patrol there has been a 75 percent decrease in seizures of counterfeit networking hardware at U.S. borders from 2008 to 2009. Yet it is entirely possible that these scams could threaten national security as well as the financial well being of corporations by infusing critical networks with gear that is unreliable, or worse, riddled with backdoors and security vulnerabilities.

China has a well known reputation for doing whatever it takes to get the competitive edge and it has already been proven do–able by researchers at the University of Illinois that such vulnerabilities could be hardwired into a microprocessor. This hacked microprocessor could then log passwords and monitor networking traffic as well as other sensitive data passed through the equipment. However, Cisco has assured us that so far there is absolutely no evidence that such equipment has been tampered with on any scale to contain backdoors, but it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

---

Looking for other Technology Rental information? Visit the Tech Travel Site Map for a variety of computer and technology rental ideas.