FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — December 21, 2017 — According to the International Data Corporation ( IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker, worldwide converged systems market revenue increased 10.8% year over year to $2.99 billion during the third quarter of 2017 (3Q17). The market consumed 1.96 exabytes of new storage capacity during the quarter, which was up 30% compared to the same period a year ago.

"The converged systems market expanded on multiple fronts, most notably within hyperconverged solutions," said Eric Sheppard, research director, Enterprise Storage & Converged Systems. "While hyperconvergence is not the sole source of market growth, it has undeniably driven an expansion of this market into new environments at a very rapid pace."

Converged Systems Segments

IDC's converged systems market view offers three segments: certified reference systems & integrated infrastructure, integrated platforms, and hyperconverged systems. Certified reference systems & integrated infrastructure are pre-integrated, vendor-certified systems containing server hardware, disk storage systems, networking equipment, and basic element/systems management software. 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. 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 scale-out architecture and their ability to provide all compute and storage functions through the same x86 server-based resources.

During the third quarter of 2017, the certified reference systems & integrated infrastructure segment generated revenues of $1.44 billion, which represents a year-over-year increase of 1.5% and 48.3% of the total converged systems market value. Dell Inc. was the largest supplier in this market segment, with $697.2 million in sales and a 48.3% share. Cisco/NetApp generated $485.5 million in sales, up 56.4% (Y/Y) and representing the second largest share of 33.6%.