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EMEA 4Q14 x86 Server Spending Increases by Hyperscale Datacenters

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As reported in International Data Corporation’s (IDC) EMEA Server Tracker, in the 4th quarter of 2015 the EMEA server market continued to show moderate growth, reporting $3.9 billion in vendor revenue and 625,000 units shipped, for year-on-year growth of 5.0% and -1.6% respectively.

For the full year 2015, vendor revenue was $13.2 billion and 2.6 million server units were shipped, with growth on 2014 of 3.0% and 0.1% respectively.

This trend can be attributed to two main drivers — the weakening dollar that forced average selling prices (ASPs) in local currency higher over the course of 2015, and the continued movement towards richer configurations for compute-intensive workloads.

The prior influencer is prominent when looking at the market in euros; in 4Q15 EMEA reported a slightly improved quarter, with a YoY revenue decline of 7.9%, which was a major improvement when comparing a full year view of 2015 against 2014, when EMEA saw a decrease in vendor revenue of 13.7%. 2015 also saw EMEA report flat unit shipments, a slowdown that can be attributed to the rise in ASPs by U.S.-based vendors earlier this year, as a means of stabilizing dollar revenues in a challenging economic situation. IDC believes that if U.S.-based vendors continue to increase local currency prices, the market might start to see more interest in Asian vendors including ODMs.

The EMEA non-x86 market showed positive growth in 4Q15 when compared to 3Q15, as revenue was up 17.9%, reaching $780 million and driven strongly by CISC machines, which showed double-digit growth (57.6%).

“This growth was pushed by longer refresh cycles, some dating back to 2014, and although this has driven the non-x86 market in 4Q15, larger vendors that play in this market are still seeing a notable decline in annual refresh cycles, a trend that IDC believes will continue into the foreseeable future,” said Giorgio Nebuloni EMEA associate research director, European Infrastructure.

“The x86 market in EMEA has started to see some normalization since the currency impact started to ease, leading to moderate 2.2% growth YoY in vendor revenue, reaching a new record of $3.1 billion, said Andreas Olah, senior research analyst, European Infrastructure. “A large share of this revenue growth has been generated by the construction of new hyperscale datacenters by several global cloud service providers. In addition, the growing hunger for more powerful, mission-critical machines with large memory pools has fueled further ASP increases, especially on the blade side.”.

Regional Highlights
“The strong performance of the x86 server market in Western European this quarter (6.0% YoY) found a lot of impetus from the larger systems product segment, which saw YoY vendor revenue growth of 39.1%, driven strongly by an increasing adoption of Big Data and IoT, which have a thirst for high-availability solutions,” said Eckhardt Fischer, research analyst, European Infrastructure at IDC. Besides the larger systems market, Western Europe also saw the x86 density optimized segment break the $300 million vendor revenue mark, for YoY growth of 30.2%. A huge achievement as more and more of the enterprise market finds its way to the cloud, driving the buildout of the larger datacenters.

“Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMA) server revenue continued to decline in the last quarter of 2015,” said Jiri Helebrand, research manager, IDC CEMA. “Indeed, revenue fell by 5.5% to $891.83 million on the back of weaker demand for x86 servers. In contrast, non-x86 sales recorded 10.8% year-over-year growth driven by IBM z Systems refresh cycle.

“The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) subregion declined 4.6% year-over-year, with revenue of $475.59 million. The Russian market continued to underperform, while Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania observed double-digit growth thanks to improving economic conditions and delivery of HPC deals. The Middle East and Africa (MEA) subregion declined 6.5% year-over-year to $416.24 million as IT projects were scaled backed due to the unfavorable economic situation impacted by falling oil prices. Despite the negative business sentiment in the region, Turkey recorded double-digit growth driven by demand from telecommunications and finance verticals”.

 

 


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E-Business

Check Point Reveals Nigeria as Second Most Targeted African Country for Cyberattacks in November

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The November 2025 Global Threat Intelligence report released by Check Point Research on Tuesday, shows Nigerian organisations faced an average of 3,374 cyberattacks per week.

Making the country as one of the primary targets for cybercriminals in Africa last month, with a record of a staggering volume of digital threats despite an overall decline in attacks across the continent.

The report shows that this figure places Nigeria second among the four major African nations analysed, trailing only Angola, which topped the list with 4,251 weekly attacks per organisation.

While Africa as a whole saw a 13 percent year-on-year decrease in cyber incidents, Nigeria’s high numbers reveal a persistent vulnerability within its digital infrastructure. Kenya and South Africa followed Nigeria with 2,384 and 1,863 weekly attacks, respectively.

The report also identified government institutions and financial services as the most targeted sectors across Africa. Globally, the education and research sector remained the most frequent victim, hit by an average of 4,656 attacks per week.

A significant highlight of the report is the emerging threat posed by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). Check Point Research found that one in every 35 GenAI prompts submitted within corporate networks globally posed a high risk of sensitive data leakage.

In Nigeria and abroad, employees are increasingly using AI tools that operate outside of formal security frameworks. The report noted that 87 percent of organisations using GenAI were affected by ‘high-risk’ prompts, which often included the input of proprietary code, customer data, or internal communications into public AI models.

Ransomware continues to be a primary tool for extortion, with global incidents rising by 22 percent year-on-year. While North America remains the most targeted region for ransomware, the impact is increasingly felt in emerging markets like Nigeria.

The most active ransomware groups identified in November were Qilin, Clop, and Akira, which primarily targeted industrial manufacturing and consumer goods sectors.


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JustMarkets Launches Global Boost Contest With Gold Prizes for Traders

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JustMarkets, a worldwide broker with more than 12 years of experience in the online trading realm, is launching the Boost Contest, which represents a large-scale trading activity with the purpose of motivating traders, with the most proficient traders being awarded for their exceptional performance through a number of valuable prizes. This activity will last until the 31st of January, 2026.

JustMarkets Launches Global Boost Contest With Gold Prizes for Traders

JustMarkets

A Competition Developed with the Goal of Providing More Opportunities for Traders Worldwide

Boost Contest competition participants will be traders with Standard, Pro, or Raw Spread accounts of the MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 platforms.

To participate, traders will only be required to have a minimum account balance of $100 with a minimum of 3 traded lots. These were the requirements set for participants. Of course, the purpose of such a competition is for every broker client to participate. At the same time, however, JustMarkets sought to encourage traders to conduct in-depth analysis, different strategies, risk, and discipline. It was with this objective that this form of competition was established.

Multiple-tier rewards system with real gold

What sets the Boost Contest apart is the Weekly Lucky Draws component, in which traders compete for real gold prizes, awarded in three levels, based on their cumulative trading volume achieved through the competition:

Tier I (more than 100 lots): 15 grams of gold (3 winners)

Tier II (50-99 lots): Gold worth 10 grams (5 winners)

Tier III (10-49 lots): 5 grams of gold (7 winners)

This competition design thus provides traders with different levels of activity with the same opportunity of benefiting from valuable rewards.

Weekly Draws to Encourage Continued Participation

Apart from the top-level prizes, the competition also includes a series of weekly prizes. Traders participating in the competition will qualify for entry into the draw if they execute a minimum of three trades per week. Five lucky traders will be awarded $200 every week.

The introduction of the Boost Contest meets JustMarkets long-term obligations in:

Engaging traders through effective rewards programs

Fostering regular and organized trading practices

Enhancing transparency and integrity within all promotion endeavors

Offering a welcoming space where traders with different skill sets can participate

This reflects the purpose of JustMarkets, which is not only to offer traders good trading terms but also opportunities that add value to the entire trading experience.

A Global Platform Built on Trust and Innovation

As a globally recognized trading platform, JustMarkets continues to invest in initiatives that elevate client experience while adhering to high operational standards. The company maintains a robust technological infrastructure, offers multilingual support, and upholds strict security principles, all foundational elements behind long-term client trust.

The Boost Contest shows JustMarkets dedication to create a convenient and transparent trading environment where everyone can reach their full investment potential by clear rules, transparent rewards, and a stable trading ecosystem.


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Microsoft Empowers 350,000 more Nigerians with AI Skills

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Microsoft, in collaboration with the Federal Government of Nigeria, Data Science Nigeria, and Lagos Business School, today announced a major milestone in its AI National Skills Initiative (AINSI), with more than 350,000 Nigerians reached with AI skills through the programme. This achievement builds on Microsoft’s longstanding partnership with the government, which has delivered digital training to over 4 million people since 2021.

Microsoft empowers 350,000 more Nigerians with AI skills

Microsoft

The milestone underscores Nigeria’s commitment to inclusive, technology-driven growth and reflects strong progress in preparing individuals and organisations to thrive in the digital economy.

“Nigeria cannot afford to wait,” said Abideen Yusuf, General Manager, Microsoft Nigeria and Ghana. “AI is reshaping every sector, and the countries that move fastest on skills will lead. We must equip people now, at scale and with intent, so the immense opportunity presented by AI doesn’t pass us by.”

Olayinka David-West, Dean of Lagos Business School, emphasised this point: “AI skilling is no longer optional for Nigeria’s digital future—it is the foundation of our competitiveness. At Lagos Business School, we believe that equipping leaders and citizens with AI capabilities is essential for driving inclusive growth, innovation, and national transformation.”

As it stands, a significant percentage of Nigerian graduates are still to acquire digital skills, highlighting the importance of workforce readiness. Launched in January, the second phase of the Nigeria skilling programme, under Microsoft’s AINSI, aims to reach 1 million citizens over three years, strengthening Nigeria’s AI capability and national competitiveness. AINSI is helping drive a range of different programmes designed to embed AI skills across every sector of the economy.

Empowering organisational leaders

Over the past year, AINSI has advanced ethical and inclusive AI leadership in Nigeria’s public sector. Working with Lagos Business School, the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, and the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Microsoft has trained 99 public sector leaders, including Members of the National Assembly and senior executives from 58 ministries and agencies. These sessions equipped leaders with strategies for AI-powered reporting and sector-specific roadmaps.

Equipping developers for the future

Developer-focused programmes are creating a strong pipeline of technical talent. Through government-driven initiatives like Developers in Government (DevsInGov) and the 3 Million Technical Talent initiative, led by the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, developers in public sectors have gained new skills. Around 645 participants have been trained in analytics and AI integration. Another 1,000 developers learned advanced skills in areas such as DevOps, machine learning and data science. These efforts are helping Nigeria’s workforce prepare for the future by advancing AI fluency across the digital ecosystem.

Bringing AI skills to every tech user

To reach everyday tech users, developers, and business leaders, Microsoft hosted a flagship programme, Microsoft AI Skills Week – engaging over 235,000 participants through AI digital literacy workshops, business leader strategy sessions and an Agentic AI hackathon. Partnering with VISA, TeKnowledge, UNICEF, Data Science Nigeria, and Lagos Business School, the initiative trained more than 11,400 individuals and certified over 1,700. A standout moment was the Agentic AI hackathon, showcasing innovative solutions for document verification, risk assessment, and fraud detection, demonstrating the real-world impact of AI skills in fintech.

“Our collaboration with Microsoft has demonstrated that AI readiness requires coordinated investment across every stakeholder group — government, developers, educators, and communities. By building capacity for evidence-driven governance, responsible innovation, classroom integration, and community adoption, we are laying the foundation for a globally competitive workforce. True digital transformation happens when the entire ecosystem moves forward together,” commented Dr. Bayo Adekanmbi, CEO/Founder, Data Science Nigeria.

Looking ahead, Microsoft and its partners will continue driving Nigeria’s digital transformation through targeted upskilling in AI and cybersecurity, expanded access to AI education, and ongoing developer training. These activities aim to build local expertise at all levels and support Nigeria’s young population in taking an active role in Africa’s digital future.

“Nigeria is on track to capture 43% of Africa’s projected $136 billion AI-driven productivity gains by 2030,” concluded Yusuf. “By collaborating with the government to equip leaders, developers, and tech users, we’re building a future-ready workforce and helping Nigerians adopt and adapt the technology, thereby maximising its potential.”


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