HPE and Cisco are joined by merged Dell EMC as big three contenders to supply cloud providers. Are white box manufacturers a threat?
In an unusual four-way tie, the market for cloud servers, switches and storage is being carved up equally by HPE, Dell EMC, Cisco and original design manufacturers, also known as white box manufacturers.
That was the conclusion of Synergy Research Group as it issued its fourth quarter report on suppliers of cloud hardware in 2016. HPE, Cisco and Dell EMC were tied with nearly equal market shares of about 11.5%, according to the report recently issued by Synergy Research Group .
Previously, HPE and Cisco appeared to be locked in a close run race for the lead in the category of cloud hardware. Cloud infrastructure providers such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services along with the managed cloud services, such as Rackspace, Equinix and CDC, have been leading consumers of x86-based and other commodity hardware, offsetting to some degree a decline in purchasing by the consumer market.
Spending on cloud hardware for both public and private clouds totaled $70 billion in 2016, with 27% of that spending occurring in the fourth quarter, according to Synergy. “For years, HPE and Cisco have been in a closely contested fight for worldwide market share, but in Q4, they were joined by the recently merged Dell EMC,” noted the Synergy announcement of its report.
For the first time, new data show that “Dell EMC, HPE and Cisco are essentially tied for leadership of the strategically important cloud infrastructure equipment market,” with white box manufacturers in Taiwan making up a fourth and equal supply source.
White box producers include Quanta, Pegatron and Foxconn in Taiwan, with some manufacturing in China.
