Hosted Data Center and Virtualization Push Proves Beneficial to Server Rental Market

No matter what happens in the data center industry, we’re sitting pretty – because even virtualization companies need server rental units.

And factory revenue in the worldwide server market is up year-over-year according to the latest report issued by the IDC, but the shift to the cloud could change that landscape in the next few years.

About 37 percent of companies are already using cloud infrastructure, or web-connected data centers, to run their information technology operations, according to a survey by Advanced Micro Devices.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD announced the results of a global research study on adoption, attitudes and approaches to cloud computing, surveying IT decision makers in public and private sector organizations across the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The findings reveal both global and regional trends in cloud computing adoption and usage, highlighting the importance of both infrastructure and workloads in considering a cloud computing model.

It’s no surprise to us that cloud computing is maturing rapidly, but an astounding 70 percent of AMD respondents indicated they are either using or currently investigating cloud computing for remotely hosted applications or to store data.

And even in the early adoption stages – of those organizations that have deployed cloud solutions – 60 percent reported that they are already seeing business value and 92 percent of current cloud users said that infrastructure was an important part of their decision to move to a cloud computing model.

Patrick Patla, general manager and vice president of AMD, said the survey’s results show that while the era of cloud computing has arrived, “there are radically different attitudes, approaches, concerns and levels of maturity depending on business environment.”

Patla said that hardware and software optimization and striking a balance of performance, power and efficiency are in need of focus.

“As an industry, we must provide clear guidance about how to optimize hardware and software for all types of clouds, focusing on custom parts for specific workloads that are prevalent in the cloud and the appropriate balance of performance, power and cost efficiency they require,” Patla said.

The shift to cloud – where more units of servers are sold into hosted data centers, rather than enterprise offices – is exposing issues to the broader market, according to a recent Forbes blog.

“This could result in a 1 percent decline in server units sold over the next three years,” according to the Forbes forecast, which focuses on HP’s performance based on the IDC study. “Servers (both industry and high-end combined) contribute almost 11 percent of our $54.70 price estimate for HP’s stock. Our price estimate currently stands well ahead of market price.”