PCQ Enterprise Choice Awards 2021: Dell leads the Server space

The server story is not much different than the commercial PCs with the top two players, Dell and HPE, dominating the server market by grabbing the two top spots, followed by Cisco in the third spot.

As per IDC, the overall server market in India witnessed a 33.8 per cent YoY increase in terms of revenue to reach USD 310.6 million in Q1 2021 compared to USD 232.1 million in Q1 2020.

In the Familiarity Index for Server category, we got some interesting results. Dell is clearly the winner with a score of 100. HPE became the 1st runner-up with a score of 75. But the gap between the 1st and the 2nd runner-up is huge. Cisco grabbed the third spot with a score of 32, followed by IBM with a score of 25 and Lenovo with a score of 18.

In the Spontaneous Awareness of brands, Dell shared the same score with HPE, i.e. 97 per cent, meaning both the brands have great recognition in the market. Cisco wasn’t far behind, with a score of 76 per cent followed by IBM with a score of 52 and Lenovo with a score of 32 per cent.

Who is using which brand’s server? When we asked enterprises about their existing brand of servers, Dell scored the highest at 56 per cent. HPE got the second spot with a relatively low score of 22 per cent followed by Cisco and IBM sharing the same scores of 8 and Lenovo with a score of 7 per cent.

When we asked about their Future Preference, Dell again got the winner’s spot. Dell happens to be a preferred brand of choice among the enterprises with 73 per cent voting for it. HPE also gained interest with the increased score of 60 when compared to the score of 22 it gained in the Current Usage. IBM got the next spot with 9 per cent, followed closely by Cisco with 8 per cent and Lenovo with 7 per cent.

The reason for choosing the brands is varied and interesting. While Dell’s brand name and pricing seemed to be more appealing to customers, HPE caught attention for its brand name, and Cisco for its quality and after sales support / service. IBM was chosen for its quality and Lenovo for price.