Inspur Joins Dell EMC, HPE as Gartner's Top Global Server Providers

Dell EMC and HPE continue to dominate the server market, but there’s a new challenger in town.

Inspur shared results from Gartner‘s third quarter X86 server market report, which places the Fremont, California-based vendor in third place behind Dell EMC and HPE. Dell EMC leads with 502,845 servers shipped and just over $3 billion in revenue for the most recent quarter. HPE was just a touch behind with 461,333 units shipped and just under $3 billion. The two companies have been neck-and-neck as market leaders in recent years, with HPE just edging out Dell EMC in revenue last quarter.

But this quarter’s big surprise was Inspur, which leapfrogged Cisco and IBM in the rankings. Inspur was fourth in shipments last year and not even on the revenue list.

Below are the 2017 third quarter numbers according to Gartner.

Inspur says it has had the fastest growth of any its competitors over the last eight quarters. Peter Peng, vice president of Inspur Group, says cloud service provider customers are pushing the global server market forward with their demand.

“Inspur focuses on smart computing for large-scale data center applications and provides products to customer that are higher in performance and efficiency through technological innovation,” Peng said. ” Through use of JDM (Joint Design Manufacturing) model innovation and by adapting to internet application scenarios, Inspur works closely with our customers to integrate a full cycle cooperative business process of joint research and development, supply chain management, production, payment and delivery to achieve long-term win-win relationship with our customers.”

Gartner’s third quarter study found that server shipments increased 5.3 percent over the last quarter, while total revenue increased by 16.7 percent. China is the fastest growing market at a 9.5 percent year-over-year increase, more than North America’s 7.8 percent rate. Gartner says Chinese businesses are undergoing a massive tradition from “traditional data centers to cloud data centers.”