HP leads HPC server market in 2013 with 32.3 percent share, ahead of IBM

NEW DELHI, INDIA: HP is leading the high performance computing (HPC) server market in 2013 with 32.3 percent share, followed by IBM with 27.7 percent, said IDC.

Cray had an exceptionally strong 2013, boosting revenue 23.4 percent over 2012.

Dawning's strong second-half performance led to 73.8 percent revenue growth over 2012.

IDC said factory revenue for HPC technical server market declined 7.2 percent to $10.3 billion in 2013 from $11.1 billion in 2012.

IDC expects the worldwide HPC server market to see compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3 percent over the 2013-2017 forecast period with revenues to exceed $14 billion in 2017.

The Supercomputers segment, for HPC systems that sell for $500,000 and up, declined 29.4 percent to $4 billion, accounting for 38.8 percent of total HPC server revenue in 2013. A major component of the 2013 revenue came from very large systems sold by IBM, HP, and Cray. IDC expects this segment to resume growth in future years.

The sub-$500,000 segments experienced a second successive year of robust growth, continuing their rebound from the global economic recession.

The Divisional segment ($250,000-$499,000 price band) grew 11.4 percent year over year to reach $1.4 billion, or 13.2 percent of the total HPC server revenue for 2013.

The Departmental segment ($100,000-$250,000 price band) expanded by 12.9 percent to $3.4 billion, or 32.7 percent of total 2013 HPC server revenue.

The Workgroup segment, for HPC systems sold for less than $100,000, showed the strongest growth expanding 23.9 percent over 2012 to $1.6 billion, and representing 15.4 percent of all 2013 HPC server revenue.

Unit shipments in 2013 increased by 19 percent year over year, due to the continued rebound in the sub-$500,000 segments where the majority of all HPC server units are sold.