Home Enterprise IDC Releases First Quarter ’19 Worldwide Converged Systems Tracker

IDC Releases First Quarter ’19 Worldwide Converged Systems Tracker

by Michael Rink

International Data Corporation (IDC) ran its quarterly Worldwide Converged Systems Tracker for the first quarter of this year. Converged systems revenue as a whole saw a healthy bump of 19% year over year to $3.75 billion, which is proportionally the same increase we saw last year for this quarter. When looking at the brand of the hyperconverged solution, Dell remains the leader in yet another category of IDC’s. Dell has 32% of the market share with a revenue of $586 million; more than twice the market share of second place, Nutanix. When looking at the market in terms of who owns the software providing the core hyperconverged capabilities, Dell-owned VMware retains its first place position from last year, with a staggering 41% of the market and $750 million in revenue. Nutanix again takes second place.


International Data Corporation (IDC) ran its quarterly Worldwide Converged Systems Tracker for the first quarter of this year. Converged systems revenue as a whole saw a healthy bump of 19% year over year to $3.75 billion, which is proportionally the same increase we saw last year for this quarter. When looking at the brand of the hyperconverged solution, Dell remains the leader in yet another category of IDC’s. Dell has 32% of the market share with a revenue of $586 million; more than twice the market share of second place, Nutanix. When looking at the market in terms of who owns the software providing the core hyperconverged capabilities, Dell-owned VMware retains its first place position from last year, with a staggering 41% of the market and $750 million in revenue. Nutanix again takes second place.

IDC defines converged systems as pre-integrated, vendor-certified systems containing server hardware, disk storage systems, networking equipment, and basic element/systems management software. 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.

All in all, this has been an excellent quarter for Dell. Their revenue for all converged segments grew by 34% year over year; significantly better than the industry overall, which grew by 19%. They're also dominating in the Hyperconverged sector with their revenue increasing by over $200 million and increasing their market share by about 3%. At the same time, both of the other top three companies actually saw their market share fall. Dell attributes much of its success in the HCI segment to the popularity of their VxRail HCI appliance.

Beginning with this release, IDC has expanded its definition of the hyperconverged systems market segment to include a new breed of systems called Disaggregated HCI (hyperconverged infrastructure). Such systems are designed from the ground up to only support distinct/separate compute and storage nodes. For now, NetApp, with their innovative approach allowing compute and storage to scale separately, is the only member of the new Disaggregated HCI category. The change to IDCs taxonomy also leaves room for other subcategories so we might soon see microservices or containers get their own subcategory as well.

IDC Worldwide Converged Systems Tracker

IDC 2019Q1 Worldwide Converged Systems Public Report

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