Tech researcher firm Gartner has gathered up its latest data for the first quarter of 2011 and assessed that server sales revenue grew 17.3 per cent for the period, with shipments increasing 8.5 per cent year on year.

The figures posted by Gartner represent further good news for a tech sector still growing after a slowdown throughout the recession. The research indicated nearly universal growth in all markets, according to the company.

"The first quarter continued a quarterly trend of year-on-year growth in both shipments and vendor revenue," Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president of the company, said. "All regions showed growth in both shipments and vendor revenue, with the exception of Japan."

The biggest gains in server sales and revenue came in the Eastern European region, with shipments growing 21.1 per cent and vendor revenue jumping 36 per cent year on year.

The growth came with strong sales of x86 servers as well, the research showed.

"x86 servers forged ahead and grew 8.6 per cent in units for the year and 17.5 per cent in revenue. Following earlier trends, the x86-based server market provided an increase in average selling prices that pushed revenue higher than shipments, and this was the case in the first quarter for all regions," Hewitt said.

Principal research analyst for Gartner Erica Gadjuli said growth in the first quarter was in some part due to virtualisation technologies.

Addressing growth in the Asia Pacific region, she commented: "Enterprise spending on server consolidation using virtualisation technology continued to be a key driving factor for server market growth in this region."

Written by Jason Morton
 

Server sales revenue rockets 17.3 per cent for Q1 2011