The worldwide server market continued to grow through 2017 as worldwide server revenue increased 25.7% in the fourth quarter of 2017, while shipments grew 8.8 percent year over year, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). In all of 2017, worldwide server shipments grew 3.1% and server revenue increased 10.4% compared with full-year 2016, adds the research group.

"Server growth was driven by relatively strong economies for the quarter across the globe," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. "This was a somewhat surprising quarter because the strength was exhibited in a variety of positive server shipment and revenue mixes in almost all geographies.”

Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) were neck-and-neck in the worldwide server market based on revenue in the fourth quarter of 2017. Dell EMC ended the year in the No. 1 spot with 19.4% market share, followed closely by HPE with 19.3% of the market. Dell EMC experienced strong growth in the quarter with 39.9% growth. HPE grew 5.5%. Inspur Electronics experienced the strongest growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 with 127.8% growth.