IDC says the Canadian server market a bright spot in the final quarter of 2008

March 5, 2009

TORONTO, Canada, March 5, 2009 – The Canadian server market bucked the worldwide trend in the fourth quarter of last year, showing 6.45% growth over the same quarter in 2007. Driven by increased revenues in the mid-range and high-end server markets, growth was also a result of higher average selling prices in Q4, according to Tarun Bhasin, senior analyst, Canadian Server Market, at IDC. "More robust servers were sold because of increasing virtualization usage and also, vendors raised prices to compensate for the depreciation of the Canadian dollar."

Total revenue for Q408 was CAD $418 million (vs. CAD $393 million in Q407). But the good news is tempered - for the full year 2008 revenue dropped 5.7% over 2007. According to IDC, Q408 worldwide server revenues declined 14% quarter-over-quarter.

Sun Microsystems is a standout performer, with strongest growth for Q408 and the only major vendor to record year-over-year revenue growth for the full year. This growth was fuelled by its x86 business, where it almost doubled revenue in 2008 (over 2007).

"x86 servers have been a focus area for Sun over the past year and it has been able to gain share in a falling market by initially selling these servers within its existing customer base," says Mr. Bhasin. "The challenge for Sun will come now that it has already captured this low hanging fruit and it tries to go beyond its install base and attract new customers."

Blade continues to be a growth engine for the server market. Blade revenue has grown to 24.3% of all x86 revenue in Canada - in other words, one in every five servers shipped in Canada is a blade server. And the blade server market in Canada has been very competitive over the last year. HP and IBM are battling for leadership position in the marketplace - both have a broad range of products and both introduced new products targeted at the small and medium business segment.

For more information or to book an interview with Tarun Bhasin, please contact:

About IDC

IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 900 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 90 countries worldwide. For more than 43 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

IDC is a division of IDG, the world's leading IT media, research and exposition company.

Contact

For more information please contact:

Steve Symonds
Marketing Coordinator
Phone: (416) 673-2260
E-mail: ssymonds@idccanada.com