After taking control of the Indian smartphone market, Chinese companies are eating into the Indian server markets in the public cloud and third party data centre segments. These Original Device Manufacturers (ODMs), mainly contract manufacturers, have stormed into the Indian server markets posing a threat to traditional players such as Dell and HP.
According to a report by the International Data Corporation (IDC), the market share of the ODMs in the Indian server market has significantly increased from 0.3 per cent in Q1 2016 to 14.5 per cent in Q1 2017.
The reason for this is the dynamic shift in the Indian server market to cloud computing. The increased adoption of open source architecture in data centres where information is available freely for use has also contributed to this shift.
Harshal Udatewar, Market analyst at IDC India, said, “The large public cloud service providers don’t need software, hence they prefer ODM.”
He also emphasised the cost effectiveness that the ODM companies offer the end users when it comes to larger contracts. “Customised servers for hyper scale data centres from ODMs enable them to reach scale much faster as compared to regular OEMs,” Udatewar added.
The ODM market share is projected to grow more with the growth of the public cloud computing market in India (and so, the growth of ODMs in India is proportional to that of public cloud). While original equipment manufactures (OEMs) present in India do not cater to the public cloud segment, the focus of the companies like Hewlett-Packard enterprise (HPE) has shifted towards cloud computing and this will increase competition in the public cloud market segment.
HPE tops the tableHPE still maintains a dominant position in the server market in India with 40.3 per cent market share in Q1 2017 as opposed to 14.5 per cent of ODMs. HPE launched its ‘Hybrid IT innovation’ , a part of which is hybrid cloud computing that integrates public and private cloud for businesses.
A spokesperson from HPE said, “ Our recent hybrid innovation, including the HPE proLiant Gen10 portfolio and our HPE synergy offerings, with our capabilities to provide support and maintain customer confidence, will support our long term leadership position in the world market.”
Dell declined to comment for the story. Analysts said that with the increasing interest and the competition offered by the Chinese ODM companies in cloud computing, the segment is bound to get crowded and competitive.
The writer is an intern with the Mumbai Bureau