E-Business
Compute, Data Hungry Applications Drive EMEA Server Spending Growth of 3.4%
As reported in International Data Corporation’s (IDC) EMEA Server Tracker, in the fourth quarter of 2014 the EMEA server market continued the strong growth seen in the past few quarters, reporting $3.7 billion in vendor revenue and 630,000 units shipped, for year-on-year growth of 1.2% and 4.4% respectively.
For the full year 2014, vendor revenue was $128 billion and 2.6 million server units were shipped, with growth on 2013 at 3.4% and 1.2% respectively.
This was the first full-year growth in both units and vendor revenue for the past three years for EMEA.
Looking at the market in euros, EMEA in 4Q14 reported very strong YoY revenue growth (10.4%), but currency fluctuations are minimizing the impact on U.S.-based vendors in Europe.
The EMEA non-x86 market showed mixed signals again in 4Q14. Revenue was down 22% year on year in the quarter, reaching $675 million, as CISC, EPIC, and traditional RISC machines all showed double-digit declines.
On the positive side, 4Q14 saw strong yearly volume growth (up 45% YoY), driven by initial deployments of miniature ARM servers in the region.
While ASPs in the non-x86 space declined to their lowest in 23 quarters, the EMEA x86 market has continued along its inverse trend, with ASPs continuing to rise to previously unseen levels.
This increase in x86 ASPs pushed vendor revenue to $3 billion in 4Q14, a YoY increase of 8.3%, while units shipped only saw a 4% increase over 4Q13 (621,085 units).
This trend in rising ASPs was even stronger in the European markets considering the difficult global economic situation.
2014 saw the EMEA x86 market break the $10 billion mark for the first time as vendor revenue grew 9.7% over 2013.
Unit shipments have continued to react more slowly, only seeing a 1.2% increase over 2013 to 2.2 million unit shipments in 2014.
Although the x86 market has shown continued growth it was outperformed by the non-x86 market, which gained 5% revenue share in 4Q14, accounting for 18.0% of all revenue generated in EMEA.
IDC believes this trend is being driven by the emergence of Big Data, business analytics, and other compute hungry applications.
“As macroeconomics in Western Europe continue along the path of slow, tiresome recovery, we believe a key factor impacting spending and prices in the first half of 2015 will be currency. Strong dollar appreciation is playing a role in setting local currency selling prices. If this continues through the course of the year, IDC believes there is a potential downside on discretionary spending, especially in SMB environments,” said Giorgio Nebuloni, associate research director with IDC EMEA.
The majority of this growth can be attributed to continued growth in rack-optimized server adoption — a market that contributed 59% of all x86 vendor revenue in 4Q14 and generated $1.7 billion in spending for the 335,000 units that were shipped into EMEA for 4Q14, to report a 1.6% YoY ASP increase.
Blade servers contributed 26% ($775 million) to the overall revenue spend in the x86 EMEA server market for 4Q14 — a 2 percentage point increase on 3Q14 — though unit shipments continue to slow in comparison to the same quarter in 2013.
Tower servers reported revenue and unit YoY declines of 3% and 4% respectively, to contribute a little over $300 million in vendor revenue for the 146,000 units that were shipped in the EMEA x86 market.
Western Europe Highlights
Western Europe has continued along last quarter’s growth patterns to report a YoY gain of 5% in unit shipments and 11% in vendor dollar revenue.
Overall Western Europe had a very good year with overall spending in 2014 $430 million higher than in 2013 (12% YoY); though this growth in spending was driven by increasing ASPs, Western Europe saw a 3% YoY increase in unit shipments to report 47,000 units more than were shipped into Western Europe in 2013.
Final figures for vendor revenue and units shipped into Western Europe for 4Q14 were $2.2 billion and 465,000 units respectively.
Contributing 76% of revenue share, Western Europe reported slower growth in 4Q in comparison to other EMEA regions.
It lost 1% revenue share to CEMA compared with 3Q14, but a YoY comparison shows that Western Europe gained 2% revenue share from 4Q13.
The slow but stable volume decrease seen by the non-x86 segment over the past few years did an about-face in 4Q14, with unit shipments growing 58% compared with the same quarter in 2013 — reporting a total of 7,500 units shipped into Western Europe for 4Q14, the highest unit shipments in 14 quarters.
“This has been driven by the emergence of ARM servers in the Western Europe market — though these systems have markedly lower ASPs, IDC predicts that as larger vendors begin shipping more of these systems the non-x86 volumes will start to show positive growth. Spending impact will initially be fairly limited, but that might change toward the end of the year,” said Eckhardt Fischer, research analyst, IDC EMEA Enterprise Server Group.
Linux put in a strong performance in the x86 market in Western Europe in 2014, increasing revenue and unit share by 4 percentage points in comparison to 2013.
3Q14 saw the biggest increase in Linux revenue share with a 1.5% improvement over the previous quarter.
The Linux operating system for 4Q14 in Western Europe managed to hold onto this revenue share, reporting 37% of the revenue and 35% of the unit share for the quarter.
This was mainly due to strong quarters in Denmark, France, Germany, and Sweden, driven by the likes of Cray Inc., Dell, Group Bull, HP, and SGI, and the entrance of Lenovo.
“The moderate growth in the Western European server market this quarter was mainly fuelled by increases in rack and density-optimized server shipments, while blades and towers have seen moderate declines,” said Andreas Olah, senior research analyst, IDC EMEA Enterprise Server Group.
“The expansion of hyperscale datacenters by cloud service providers that run on ODM servers to a large extent has contributed to the overall boost. Datacenter projects across the Nordics, Benelux, and Ireland have contributed to positive year-on-year growth in these markets in revenue terms, while moderate declines were observed in Germany, France, and Italy.”
CEMA Highlights
“Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa [CEMA] server revenue recorded growth of 1.3% year over year to reach $906.23 million in the last quarter of 2014.
Year-end spending of available budgets helped to lift x86 server sales in enterprise accounts and the education sector, while non-x86 sales performed well in the government segment,” said Jiri Helebrand, research manager, IDC CEMA.
“The Central and Eastern Europe [CEE] subregion grew 1.6% year over year to $498.54 million, benefitting from demand in the finance and government verticals. Russia performed better than initially projected as government budgets allowed for new investments toward the end of the year.
“Poland was also a surprise, driven by the delivery of several HPC deals. The Middle East and Africa [MEA] subregion was up 1% year over year to $408 million, driven by infrastructure investments in Saudi Arabia and UAE, offsetting the slowdown in South Africa and Turkey due to local currency depreciation.”
EMEA Highlights
Non-x86 revenues continued their steady spending decline (-21.6% YoY), driven by CISC servers (-36.8% YoY).
Windows continues to grow its vendor revenue share and is up 2.3 percentage points YoY. Linux, however, rallied again in the quarter due to some larger deals, to report a 3.7 percentage point YoY increase and claim the largest OS gain for two consecutive quarters.
Maintaining top spot, volume servers contributed $2.8 billion to the EMEA market and gained 9.8 percentage points on the corresponding quarter in 2013.
4Q14 was not kind to high-end enterprise servers, which reported a 32.3% YoY decrease in vendor revenue, with not much separating them from midrange enterprise servers in terms of spending.
Rack servers were the biggest influencer in EMEA in 4Q14, reporting 8.15% YoY growth in vendor revenue and 7.8% unit growth, for $2.1 billion in vendor revenue and 34,000 units shipped into the EMEA market in 3Q14.
Amazon’s management on Wednesday said that it expects that artificial intelligence software will reduce the number of office workers at the world’s largest online retailer.
Andy Jassy, chief executive, Amazon
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today and more people doing other types of jobs,” Andy Jassy, chief executive, Amazon wrote in an email to employees.
He said it was difficult to predict how the overall workforce will evolve, but in the next few years, it is expected that AI efficiency gains will lead to a reduction in the number of office workers.
According to earlier reports, Amazon employed around 1.5 million people worldwide, with approximately 350,000 office employees in various roles.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the company does not anticipate further large-scale layoffs, as seen in 2022 and 2023, in the near future.
Instead, it expects that vacant positions will not be refilled.
However, layoffs are not ruled out, according to sources familiar with the matter.
“Amazon is focusing on so-called AI agents, software capable of independently performing tasks. These agents could, for example, summarise information from the web and data sources, write software, translate languages and automate many time-consuming tasks,” Mr Jassy explained.
“Agents will be teammates that we can call on at various stages of our work,” he added, urging employees to experiment with AI whenever possible.
The impact of AI on the job market has been a concern for many years.
Recently, Spotify, the leader in music streaming, announced that teams requesting additional staff would first need to prove that AI could not perform the tasks.
The creators of the language-learning app Duolingo plan to gradually replace external workers with AI.
Dr Adebowale Adedokun, director-general, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), has reaffirmed the bureau’s commitment to data protection in Nigeria.
He disclosed this in a statement at the weekend by Zira Nagga, head of Public Relations, BPP, following a courtesy visit by a delegation from the National Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
Adedokun stressed that data protection is vital to Nigeria’s economy and development, particularly in areas such as demography, health, education, and other key sectors.
He emphasised that no country should leave its data unprotected, as it plays a crucial role in future planning and national development.
“Data governs the world. It is essential to technological progress and must be protected for a country or business to be taken seriously,” he said.
Adedokun described the visit, aimed at fostering partnership on data policy implementation and protection, as timely and aligned with national goals.
He said the BPP would collaborate closely with the NDPC to boost data development, capacity building, and enhance the procurement system.
“The BPP will support compliance as part of the ‘Nigeria First’ Policy, although it is not a core procurement eligibility requirement,” he explained.
He suggested a hybrid training model to help build strong capacity in data protection, privacy awareness, and policy understanding.
According to him, a dynamic training approach will reduce logistics costs and improve public confidence in data safety and privacy.
Dr Vincent Olatunji, CEO, and national commissioner, NDPC, praised Adedokun and the BPP for supporting data protection initiatives.
He said the partnership supports President Bola Tinubu’s vision and will strengthen data privacy across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
“The collaboration will create awareness and train BPP staff to ensure a firm grasp of data protection principles and policies,” he stated.
Olatunji said the NDPC would establish a working group to finalise a Memorandum of Understanding beneficial to both institutions.
He added that President Tinubu signed the NDPC into law on 12 June 2023 to uphold citizens’ rights and protect national and business data.
Olatunji also noted that strict legal measures were in place to enforce data protection and ensure full compliance nationwide.
Both agencies agreed to form a team to sign the MoU and focus on capacity building and data management in procurement and beyond.
President Bola Tinubu said that his administration has initiated a project to install fibre optic cables across the country, aimed at enhancing the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
His plans were contained in a speech he delivered at a joint session of the National Assembly in commemoration of Democracy Day on Thursday, June 12.
He said the fibre optic layout is part of other projects being embarked on.
“In addition, we have embarked on an ambitious project to lay fibre optic cables across the nation, a transformative step toward bridging the digital divide and fostering greater connectivity.
“This initiative promises not only to enhance the speed and reliability of internet access but also to revolutionise how businesses operate, how students learn, and how communities stay connected,” Tinubu stated.
He maintained that by extending this critical infrastructure, his government is empowering entrepreneurs, enabling digital education, and providing the tools for our youth to compete in a globalised world.
In a most recent report on Internet connectivity, The ICIR pointed out how Nigeria has faced setbacks in its deployment of fibre optic cables and needs a transformation.
The challenges revolve around vandalism, inadequate coordination between road construction and telecom infrastructure, and varying right-of-way (RoW) charges across states.
Among industry experts, these issues impact network outages, increase repair costs, and hinder broadband expansion efforts.
It has also further threatened the digital economy, leading to slower Internet speeds, dropped calls, and unreliable connectivity among others.
Amazon CEO Says AI will Reduce Number of Workers Needed
First Bank Spends N15Bn to Guard Systems against Hackers in 5 Months –CEO
SEC Flags Zugacoin, Samzuga GPT as High-Risk Meme Coins
NIBSS National Payment Stack to Transform Nigerian Instant Payments
Lasaco Assurance to Invest in Technologies, Systems to Deliver Value to Clients
Telecom2 days agoALTON Clarifies on Migration to End-User Billing for USSD Services
Telecom3 days agoGSMA, Mobile Industry Call for Strengthened Action to Advance Child Online Protection in Africa
News2 days agoDigital Africa Global Consult, NDPC Partner on Ground-Breaking “Nigeria Data Challenge” Initiative
General News3 days agoTD Africa, HP Strengthen Partnership to Advance Africa’s Tech Ecosystem
E-Financial2 days agoNigerian Stock Market Suffers ₦183 Billion Loss Amid Profit-Taking
News2 days agoDStv Rewards Loyal Customers with Free Package Upgrades
Telecom2 days agoLagos Future Conference 2025: Stakeholders Call for Digital Responsibility and Grassroots Innovation
General News2 days agoAfrican Parliamentarians Seek Answers from Telcos on Quality of Service