Headline, January26, 2014

''' !SERVER!? ........ +SWIRL+...​.... 

!!! SWELTER !!! '''

To most of the world, a computer is a device with a screen and a keyboard, sitting their desk or on their lap.

More and more of them have tablets and they may recognize that their mobile phones as powerful computers too  -for that is what they have become.

But a lot of the world's computing power is hidden, in servers that communicate with all these personal devices, power the information-technology departments of companies, governments and research institutions and sit blinking in rack upon rack, in the vast data centres of Amazon, Facebook, Google and the rest of the growing cloud.

That the market for personal computers is in upheaval is well known. Sales of desktop and laptop PCs have been declining at a double-digit annual rate. IDC, a research firm disclosed recently, that it expected more tablets than portable PCs to be shipped this year.

Companies that thrive on the PC, such as HP and Dell, have struggled in a more mobile world. Less visibly, the market for servers  -worth more than $50 billion last year, estimate both IDC and Gartner, is shifting too.

One leading supplier, IBM, has been negotiating to sell part of its business. Two others HP and Dell, have been sniping at each other. And these days some of the biggest customers are designing and building their own machines.

Global revenues were 5% lower in the first quarter of 2013 than they had been a year before. The number of units shipped fell by 0.7%, IDC figures, released a day later, showed steeper declines.

Both suggest that four of the top five vendors by revenue; IBM, HP, Fujitsu, and Oracle had falling sales.

By revenue IBM, whose servers at the higher end, is ranked first by Gartner and second by IDC. It has been feeling the pinch. Last year,  after its quarterly results fell short of expectations, it replaced the head of its hardware group.

Of the top five vendors, only Dell enjoyed an increase of sales of 14.4% according to Gartner; HP dropped by the same proportion. Jeffrey Hewitt of Gartner notes that Dell has always priced keenly. 

Lately, he suspects, that has been winning it business not only at the low end of the market but also with more sophisticated products.  

But perhaps the most important shift in the server business is not among the leading names, but away from them. Cisco, best known for making the switches and routers that direct data around the internet, saw its server sales jump by a third in the year 2012.

And the giants of the Internet are a new sort of customer : they are creating their own designs and buy from contract manufacturers, notably in Taiwan. 

Thus the huge data centres Facebook is building in America and Sweden contains servers supplied by Quanta Computers, a Taiwanese maker of PCs for Apple, HP and others that branched into servers a few years ago.

Rackspace, a fast-growing American cloud-computing company, also plans to deploy servers built by Quanta in anew data centre on the east coast.

Combined, all the contract manufacturers and self-builders would be the fifth biggest vendor of servers based on the  ''X86''  architecture  -which makes up most of the market-  with a share of 4.8%, Gartner estimates.

Their sales went up by 34.5% in the past year. One limit to their expansion, says Mr Hewitt, is customers' expertise. ''Not everyone has the wherewithal of a Google or a  Facebook,''  he says.

Even so, the server market has become more crowded, more fluid place. The Swirl is churning, and so the swelter is never far behind.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Engineering,Technology and all sciences, the world over. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' In Praise Of Servers -!WOW!-  And Serving '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless