Worldwide Converged Systems revenue increases 8.5%

"We are seeing some of the market demand move into deals with lower average selling prices (ASPs), which is driving a shift from traditional converged systems to hyperconverged systems," said Kevin M. Permenter, senior research analyst, Enterprise Servers. "Right now, most of the growth is coming from the mid-market, which is heavily skewed toward hyperconverged systems. We are expecting to see this trend continue into the near term."

Converged Systems Segments

IDC distinguishes between three market segments: Integrated Systems, Certified Reference Systems, and Hyperconverged Systems.

• Integrated Systems are pre-integrated, vendor-certified systems containing server hardware, disk storage systems, networking equipment, and basic element/systems management software.

• Like integrated systems, Certified Reference Systems are pre-integrated, vendor-certified systems containing server hardware, disk storage systems, networking equipment, and basic element/systems management software. Certified reference systems, however, are designed with systems from multiple technology vendors.

• Hyperconverged Systems collapse core storage and compute functionality into a single, highly virtualized solution. A key characteristic of hyperconverged systems that differentiate these solutions from other integrated systems is their ability to provide all compute and storage functions through the same server-based resources.

During the fourth quarter of 2015, the Integrated Systems market generated revenues of more than $2.0 billion, which represented a year-over-year increase of 6.7% and 65.6% of the total market value. VCE was the largest supplier of Integrated Systems with $743 million in sales, or 36.3% share of the market segment.