New server deals to spur growth in MEA - IDC

ITRealms:

 

New server deals in Middle East and Africa  are expected to spur growth in key countries like Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, ITRealms reports.

These deals will primarily be within the healthcare, government, financial services, and telecommunications sectors, according to IDC report.

The recent declines in the market's revenue has been attributed to the fact that vendors like Huawei and Lenovo are offering servers that are almost 40 per cent cheaper than the prices offered by the market's A-ranking vendors, namely HP and Dell.

Looking at the second half of 2015, IDC expects the MEA server market to experience a 4 per cent increase in volume and a 6 per cent decline in value year-on-year.

This is coming on the heels of declining server market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA)  which ITRealms gathered comprised x86 and non-x86 servers which contracted 10 per cent year on year in Q2 2015 to total 65,000 units, according to the latest figures from International Data Corporation (IDC), the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.

This decline can primarily be attributed to the poor political and socioeconomic conditions that have hampered a number of countries in the region; particularly notable in the x86 server market where a number of significant projects within the government sector were delayed. In revenue terms, the market remained flat as there was a slight increase in the number of higher-end servers sold during the quarter, ITRealms learnt.

Research analyst for systems and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, Victoria Mendes, said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) experienced very slow quarters, both in terms of x86 server units and revenue, primarily due to delayed budget rollouts, the traditional slowdown over Ramadan, and continuing uncertainty around falling oil prices.

“Combined, these two countries suffered declines of 28 per cent in volume and 21 per cent in value year on year in Q2 2015. But despite the slowdown, the UAE did see a few deals take place in the government and financial sectors, while Saudi Arabia saw a big deal in the oil and gas industry,” she said.

Revenue in Turkey, ITRealms learnt, was up by around 20 per cent year on year despite the market suffering a 10 per cent decline in shipments. This anomaly can be attributed to the fact that several large-scale deals took place during the quarter. The market is also seeing improved uptake of virtualization technologies, which consume lesser server units than is the case in traditional datacenters.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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