A Review of Blade Server Market Share

Every quarter IDC publishes market data for blade server vendors.  In the past I’ve only covered the top 4 main stream vendors, Cisco, Dell Technologies, HPE and Lenovo.  However, I recently came upon IDC’s full list of blade server vendors so I thought it would be good to share.

Market Share Data

This data was taken from IDC and includes blade server revenue and units sold from a time period of Q2 of 2019 to the current quarter, Q1 2021.

1, 2 and 4 Socket Blade Servers – Combined Market Share

I’ve included 4 sections: one that includes all of the data combined, then charts for 1 processor, 2 processor and 4 processor blade servers.  If a cell is blank, it did not have any data.  I do not have any details on what “other whitebox” or “other named” includes.

IDC – Worldwide Vendor Revenue Share (1S, 2S, 4S Blade Server)
2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4 2021Q1
Dell Tech 12.8% 14.7% 14.6% 13.3% 9.8% 13.6% 13.2% 14.8%
HPE 36.4% 38.1% 41.5% 41.2% 37.9% 41.1% 42.8% 36.2%
Lenovo/IBM 2.8% 3.2% 3.9% 4.8% 3.5% 3.4% 3.7% 4.0%
Cisco 35.5% 35.9% 32.9% 31.1% 33.0% 33.8% 31.7% 36.0%
Huawei 4.7% 2.8% 2.0% 2.5% 7.3% 2.7% 2.8% 1.4%
Inspur 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1%
NEC 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Sugon 1.0% 0.5% 0.4% 0.8% 0.6% 0.6% 0.6% 0.1%
Groupe Bull 1.0% 0.9% 1.0% 1.3% 1.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.7%
Other Whitebox 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.3% 0.2% 0.1% 0.9%
Other Named 1.5% 0.8% 1.0% 1.0% 1.2% 0.4% 1.2% 1.0%
Super Micro 3.5% 2.7% 2.4% 3.7% 5.0% 3.8% 3.4% 4.9%
IDC – Worldwide Vendor Units Share (1S, 2S, 4S Blade Server)
2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4 2021Q1
Dell Tech 14.1% 16.4% 16.7% 18.0% 10.9% 16.5% 14.7% 17.9%
HPE 35.1% 38.3% 38.7% 32.0% 30.1% 38.8% 37.7% 32.0%
Lenovo/IBM 5.0% 3.7% 4.6% 7.8% 3.6% 4.9% 6.1% 5.7%
Fujitsu 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Cisco 22.7% 24.5% 25.5% 23.8% 23.1% 24.6% 25.6% 28.6%
Huawei 9.1% 7.1% 4.6% 5.5% 18.7% 5.8% 6.1% 2.9%
Inspur 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.3% 0.2%
NEC 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Sugon 2.5% 1.2% 1.1% 2.0% 1.3% 1.5% 1.4% 0.3%
Groupe Bull 2.6% 1.9% 2.0% 2.6% 2.8% 0.6% 0.5% 1.5%
Other Whitebox 0.7% 0.3% 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% 1.8%
Other Named 1.8% 1.1% 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% 0.5% 1.4% 1.2%
Super Micro 6.2% 5.3% 4.9% 6.6% 7.7% 6.2% 5.9% 7.9%

1 Socket Blade Server Market Share

IDC – Worldwide Vendor Revenue Share (1S Blade Server)
2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4 2021Q1
HPE 35.4% 0.0% 1.7% 0.0%
Cisco 89.0% 97.6% 97.7% 97.6% 63.8% 99.1% 96.5% 98.8%
Sugon 7.1% 1.3% 1.7% 1.9% 0.6% 0.5% 0.5% 0.2%
Other Named 1.9% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Super Micro 2.0% 0.7% 0.6% 0.5% 0.2% 0.4% 1.3% 1.0%
IDC – Worldwide Vendor Units Share (1S Blade Server)
2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4 2021Q1
HPE 25.8% 0.0% 0.9% 0.0%
Cisco 85.4% 94.1% 93.8% 93.3% 70.7% 96.6% 90.8% 93.7%
Sugon 7.8% 2.3% 3.0% 3.7% 1.6% 1.1% 0.9% 0.4%
Other Named 1.3% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Super Micro 5.5% 3.2% 3.3% 3.1% 1.9% 2.3% 7.3% 5.9%

2 Socket Blade Server Market Share

IDC – Worldwide Vendor Revenue Share (2S Blade Server)
2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4 2021Q1
Dell Tech 17.4% 20.7% 21.5% 20.3% 14.5% 20.2% 19.0% 20.5%
HPE 35.5% 35.9% 34.3% 30.6% 31.7% 32.6% 37.8% 32.6%
Lenovo/IBM 3.7% 3.7% 5.2% 6.7% 4.9% 4.6% 4.7% 5.1%
Fujitsu 0.3% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Cisco 29.0% 30.0% 29.3% 30.3% 29.2% 32.2% 27.6% 31.1%
Huawei 6.0% 3.4% 2.7% 3.2% 10.2% 3.9% 4.0% 2.0%
Inspur 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1%
NEC 0.0% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Sugon 1.1% 0.5% 0.5% 1.1% 0.8% 0.9% 0.9% 0.1%
Groupe Bull 1.5% 1.3% 1.6% 2.0% 2.1% 0.5% 0.4% 1.0%
Other Whitebox 0.6% 0.3% 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% 1.2%
Other Named 2.0% 1.2% 1.6% 1.5% 1.7% 0.6% 1.8% 1.4%
Super Micro 2.7% 2.7% 2.7% 3.9% 4.4% 4.0% 3.5% 4.8%
IDC – Worldwide Vendor Units Share (2S Blade Server)
2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4 2021Q1
Dell Tech 16.3% 19.3% 19.9% 21.5% 13.0% 20.1% 17.8% 21.4%
HPE 35.5% 37.8% 36.6% 27.4% 27.4% 34.8% 35.0% 29.5%
Lenovo/IBM 5.2% 3.9% 5.3% 9.0% 4.1% 5.6% 6.7% 6.5%
Fujitsu 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Cisco 18.8% 20.6% 21.8% 21.7% 19.8% 22.1% 22.2% 25.0%
Huawei 9.8% 7.7% 5.3% 6.2% 21.5% 7.0% 7.4% 3.5%
Inspur 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.3% 0.4% 0.2%
NEC 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Sugon 2.6% 1.2% 1.2% 2.3% 1.4% 1.8% 1.7% 0.3%
Groupe Bull 3.0% 2.2% 2.5% 3.2% 3.4% 0.8% 0.6% 1.8%
Other Whitebox 0.8% 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.5% 0.3% 0.2% 2.2%
Other Named 2.0% 1.2% 1.6% 1.4% 1.5% 0.7% 1.7% 1.5%
Super Micro 5.7% 5.4% 5.2% 6.9% 7.4% 6.6% 6.3% 8.1%

4 Socket Blade Server Market Share

IDC – Worldwide Vendor Revenue Share (4S Blade Server)
2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4 2021Q1
Dell Tech 2.2% 1.7% 2.4% 1.1% 0.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.6%
HPE 38.6% 43.5% 54.4% 60.1% 50.3% 57.1% 53.3% 45.0%
Lenovo/IBM 0.9% 1.9% 1.5% 1.6% 0.7% 1.1% 1.7% 1.4%
Cisco 50.6% 48.6% 38.8% 32.2% 40.1% 36.1% 39.6% 46.7%
Huawei 1.7% 1.5% 0.7% 1.2% 1.5% 0.4% 0.4% 0.1%
Inspur 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Sugon 0.6% 0.3% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%
Other Named 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.2% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Super Micro 5.2% 2.5% 1.9% 3.4% 6.3% 3.6% 3.3% 5.1%
IDC – Worldwide Vendor Units Share (4S Blade Server)
2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4 2021Q1
Dell Tech 1.6% 1.2% 2.0% 1.0% 0.5% 1.6% 1.3% 1.0%
HPE 34.2% 43.2% 49.6% 55.3% 44.7% 57.3% 50.6% 45.9%
Lenovo/IBM 4.2% 2.9% 1.7% 2.7% 1.3% 2.0% 3.8% 2.1%
Cisco 43.3% 42.6% 40.2% 32.4% 38.6% 32.9% 38.9% 43.8%
Huawei 5.3% 4.3% 1.7% 1.8% 4.5% 1.1% 0.8% 0.1%
Inspur 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Sugon 2.0% 0.8% 0.7% 0.7% 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1%
Other Named 0.4% 0.2% 0.0% 0.5% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Super Micro 9.1% 4.8% 4.0% 5.5% 9.5% 4.8% 4.5% 7.1%

If you want a PDF of this data, please click here.

Kevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com.  He has over 20 years of experience in the x86 server marketplace.  Since 1997 Kevin has worked at several resellers in the Atlanta area, and has a vast array of competitive x86 server knowledge and certifications as well as an in-depth understanding of VMware and Citrix virtualization.  Kevin has worked at Dell EMC since August 2011 is a Principal Engineer and Chief Technical Server Architect supporting the East Enterprise Region at Dell Technologies. He is also a CTO Ambassador in the Office of the CTO at Dell Technologies.

 

Disclaimer: The views presented in this blog are personal views and may or may not reflect any of the contributors’ employer’s positions. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any employer. No compensation has been provided for any part of this blog.