Worldwide Integrated Infrastructure and Platforms Revenues Increase 19.4% in the Fourth Quarter as Demand Outpaces Traditional Systems, According to IDC

According to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Integrated Infrastructure and Platform Tracker, vendor revenue for the worldwide integrated infrastructure and platforms market increased 19.4% year over year to $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14). The market generated 1.2 exabytes of new capacity during the year, which was up 42.2% compared to the same period a year ago. For the full year 2014, worldwide integrated systems revenues increased 28.9% year over year to $9.4 billion, while new storage capacity shipments grew 52.8% to 3.5 exabytes.

"The integrated systems market continued to exhibit strong momentum throughout 2014 and represents a growth opportunity for IT vendors," said Jed Scaramella, Research Director, Enterprise Servers. "The industry saw competitive dynamics shift in 2014 with major vendors completing company privatization and acquisitions, as well as many forming new partnerships. These actions are sure to set a new competitive landscape for 2015."

"An expanding number of organizations around the world are turning to integrated systems as a way to address longstanding and difficult infrastructure challenges," said Eric Sheppard, Research Director, Storage. "This drove $2.1 billion of net-new spending in 2014 and makes these solutions an increasingly rare source of high growth within the broader infrastructure marketplace."

Integrated Platforms vs. Integrated Infrastructure

IDC distinguishes between two market segments: Integrated Platforms and Integrated Infrastructure. Integrated platforms are integrated systems that are sold with additional pre-integrated packaged software and customized system engineering optimized to enable such functions as application development software, databases, testing, and integration tools. Integrated infrastructure systems are designed for general-purpose, distributed workloads that are likely to have differing performance profiles. While integrated infrastructure is similar to integrated platforms in that it will leverage the same infrastructure building blocks, it is not optimized for a specific workload.

The Integrated Platforms market was essentially flat during the fourth quarter, generating $917 million in sales on 0.4% year-over-year growth rate. Oracle was the largest supplier of Integrated Platform Systems with $371 million in sales, or 40.5% share of the market segment.

Integrated Infrastructure sales grew 31.9% year over year during the fourth quarter 2014 to $1.8 billion in total sales. VCE was the top-ranked supplier of Integrated Infrastructure in the quarter, generating revenues of $521 million and capturing a 28.6% share of the market segment.

In addition to the two tables above, interactive graphics showing 4Q14 and 4Q13 market share for the top three vendors are available for both the integrated platforms market and the integrated infrastructure market. Instructions on how to embed these graphics into online news articles and social media can be found by viewing this press release on IDC.com.

Taxonomy Notes:
IDC defines integrated infrastructure and platforms as pre-integrated, vendor-certified systems containing server hardware, disk storage systems, networking equipment, and basic element/systems management software. Systems not sold with all four of these components are not counted within this tracker. Specific to management software, IDC includes embedded or integrated management and control software optimized for the auto discovery, provisioning and pooling of physical and virtual compute, storage and networking resources shipped as part of the core, standard integrated system.

For more information about IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Integrated Infrastructure and Platforms Tracker, please contact Lidice Fernandez at 305-351-3057 or lfernandez@idc.com.

About IDC Trackers
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About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC.

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