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IDC sees server growth, with Linux at one-third share in 2008

Enterprise server growth will continue throughout 2004, expanding worldwide spending for servers by 5% to $53 billion, according to IDC. As well, IDC forecasts the worldwide server market will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8% over the next five years. The research group predicts that the Linux OS will obtain nearly one-third share of the 2008 market in terms of units.

"There continues to be very strong growth in the x86 industry standard server market -– particularly for Windows and Linux-based solutions," said Mark Melenovsky, director of Global Enterprise Server Solutions research at IDC. "Growth has been strong for everything from standalone systems in small offices to several hundred node clusters in enterprise data centers."

In 2008, according to IDC, servers based on the Linux operating system will represent about 29% of all server unit shipments and about $9.7 billion in revenues. Microsoft Windows-based servers are expected to capture 60% of all server unit shipments in 2008 and represent the largest server operating environment in terms of revenues with $22.7 billion. IDC anticipates Windows and Linux servers combined to more than 50% of server market revenues in 2008 -– up from just 37% in 2003.