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After
years of zipping merrily with 30 to 40 percent growth rates,
the Indian server market has now skidded to a near stop, and
is seeing negative growth. Yet, vendors are upbeat about the
coming year, though their enthusiasm is tempered with caution,
say Prashant L Rao, Akhtar Pasha and Pankaj
Mishra in an in-depth analysis of the Indian server market
2001-02
was the year of living dangerously, not only for a world increasingly
under the shadow of terrorism, but also for server vendors
who found the 40 percent year-on-year growth they had taken
for granted for so many years evaporating right before their
eyes. The slump began in H1 2001 with stagnating sales in
the top four cities, which account for 85 percent of sales,
says MAIT. Sales in next four cities declined by 27 percent
and in other cities declined by 34 percent over H1/2000-01.
Server sales overall dropped by 6 percent; Sales in larger
businesses grew by 42 percent, but in small and medium businesses
(SMEs), it dropped by 40 percent and 29 percent respectively,
over H1/2000-01.
At
year-end, the facts reveal that 2001-02 saw the server market
shrink by 4 percent, a far cry from the 25 percent growth
predicted at the start of the year. That aside, significant
changes took place in 2001-02. For the first time Intel gained
acceptance in the mission-critical, transaction-processing
environment. Almost every vendor that we spoke to confirmed
this. The Unix market saw a tussle between leader Sun and
challenger IBM. While Sun holds on to the numero uno position,
it finds itself on the horns of a dilemma and will have to
make a thorny choice to jettison its cherished single platform
(Solaris-Sparc) for a composite model.
Microsoft’s hold on the Intel server space stayed intact.
Unlike the situation in the US where Linux is breathing down
Windows 2000’s neck, India is yet to see a massive surge
of Linux adoption. Windows NT/2000 is the dominant OS on Intel.
NetWare still prevails in the banking segment, as does Unixware
in insurance.
Server Technology saw some changes with Intel servers getting
many of the features hitherto found only on RISC boxes. Compaq
and HP launched blade servers, taking rack density to new
highs.
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