Incumbent server vendors on the way out

The traditional server OEMs are losing their grasp on the market, with at least one likely to partially exit the market by 2017, according to a recent Gartner report.

In the report, titled 'Will Your Traditional Server Vendor Survive the Decade?', Gartner analyst George J Weiss writes: "In five years, there is a significant probability that at least one of your server vendors will no longer be actively competing and that your infrastructure will contain new vendor relationships unforeseen today."

According to the report, traditional incumbent server vendors - which generally have business models that tend towards financial and technical stability - are losing market share.

"The top four to five traditional vendors accounted for 75% of market shipments in 2011, but now that percentage is down to 63%," the report states.

In order to capitalise on this trend, Weiss has a few recommendations.

"Plan a procurement strategy of more than one vendor that assumes at least one of the traditional server OEMs will exit part of the server hardware business by 2017," he says.

You should also challenge the incumbent, traditional vendors to take paths that are more disruptive/more innovative/less safe.

And if your organisation is on the more aggressive side, and inclined to take risks in order to differentiate itself from the competition, make sure you keep abreast of developments with your disruptive or more innovative vendors.

Pictured: Gartner analyst George J Weiss.