UPDATE: We Won’t Grow Tired of This: Dell EMC Leads PC, Storage, Server, Converged Systems and HCI Revenue, Yet Again

This post has been updated to include the latest Converged Infrastructure and Hyperconverged Infrastructure data from IDC.

Dell Technologies is a data-driven company. Making the past few weeks especially gratifying for us, as IDC released its latest worldwide trackers for enterprise storage systems, servers, converged infrastructure sytstems and PCs. What the reports tell us is our strategy is working. I invite you to read the reports from top to bottom. Or, to save you some time, I’ll give you the punch line – Dell Technologies continues to lead and grow in every category.

IDC tracks shipments across many IT industry segments on a quarterly basis. Quarter after quarter, Dell Technologies holds the No. 1 spot across these segments and continues to widen our lead – servers, enterprise storage systems, storage software, converged infrastructure, hyper-converged infrastructure systems, hypervisors, PCs, displays and more. No other technology company can claim this nor support customers’ digital transformation efforts the way we can. The breadth of our leading technology portfolio is unprecedented.

Dell EMC is No. 1 in worldwide enterprise storage systems revenue and growing.

In Q4 FY19, our Storage business recorded $4.6B in revenue – up 7% Y/Y – and its fourth consecutive quarter of growth. IDC’s Q4 CY2018 Worldwide External Storage Systems Tracker reflected a similar refrain. A fourth consecutive quarter of share gains (+2.6 share points) in enterprise storage systems, tightening the grip on our No. 1 position in the enterprise storage systems market with 30.3% revenue share. That’s nearly 3x our nearest competitor. Our storage business took share across nearly every region while the competition virtually stood still or lost share.

These consistent results drive home that we have a winning combination of superior storage products from entry to high-end, along with a strategy that makes us hard to beat. Hard to beat in the minds of our customers. Hard to beat because of the tireless work of our teams to deliver for our customers every day.

All this adds up to Dell EMC firmly in the lead across every storage industry segment in the IDC WW Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker:

  • #1 in entry storage vendor revenue with 22.1% share
  • #1 in midrange storage vendor revenue with 30.1% share
  • #1 in high-end storage vendor revenue with 37.3% share
  • #1 in All-Flash storage vendor revenue with 27.9% share

Dell EMC is No. 1 in worldwide x86 server revenue and units shipped

2018 was an excellent year for servers. Amidst those prognosticating the movement of workloads to public clouds, the sale of servers, and particularly mainstream servers to everyday companies, grew beyond expectations.

In Q4 2018 alone, IDC research notes that worldwide server vendor revenues increased 12.6%, Y/Y to $23.6 billion. Vendors shipped almost 3 million units globally. Server demand continues to be strong; this marked our fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth and the all-time high for total revenue in any quarter ever.

IDC research shows that Dell EMC further extended our lead as the undisputed No. 1 provider of both x86 server revenue and units shipped globally. In fact, for x86 servers, Dell EMC holds the No.1 position* for revenue for six consecutive quarters and volume units for the past nine quarters.

Companies around the world are moving to multi-cloud strategies. Companies – like New Belgium Brewing – have over-indexed on moving everything off-premises to find that everything in the public cloud comes at a cost. There’s truly a time and place for everything – a hybrid approach which we are delivering.

Building on this momentum, Dell EMC continues to innovate, bringing customers even more value from the PowerEdge portfolio as the bedrock of the modern data center.

Dell EMC Extends Lead as No. 1 in Converged Infrastructure and Hyperconverged Infrastructure

In 4Q18, Dell EMC maintained its undisputed leadership of the Converged Systems industry. At 31.8%, Dell EMC expanded its lead to more than 2.5 times our nearest competitor.

Dell EMC also continued to distance itself as No. 1 in HCI systems sales revenue, thanks to the continued strong growth of VxRail and the breadth of our HCI portfolio. While the HCI systems industry grew an impressive 46.5% year over year, Dell EMC further distanced itself as No. 1 in HCI with 28.6% of the $1.9 billion in industry revenue for Q4, growing faster than the market at a whopping 64.2%, according to IDC.

We continue to expand our CI and HCI leadership through advancing our portfolio, based on customer feedback, and by delivering the fastest and simplest paths to achieving IT outcomes, innovation and business goals. We do this through industry leading and trusted technologies, close collaborations for tightly integrating offerings, and the industry’s most diverse portfolio that enables us to offer incredible solutions for any type of computing environment and customer preference.

Most recently, Dell EMC enhanced our HCI portfolio with an even simpler path to hybrid clouds, announcing that VMware Cloud Foundation is available on Dell EMC VxRail beginning this April. This offers customers a jointly engineered, hybrid cloud infrastructure stack integrated with VMware’s flexible, full stack HCI architecture. The result: it’s about to get even simpler to deploy hybrid cloud for customers in VMware environments with Dell EMC.

But wait there’s more…Dell grows PC industry share for…24 consecutive quarters

Our Client Solutions business had a stellar year. As we reported in late February, in FY19, we drove double-digit revenue growth in commercial notebooks, workstations, high-end consumer notebooks and displays. We reported year-over-year worldwide PC share growth for a 24th consecutive quarter and gained unit share in displays year-over-year for the 23rd consecutive quarter.

IDC notes in Q4 of 2018, Dell’s global PC share increased 0.8 points to 16.5% year-over-year (Y/Y), marking 24 consecutive quarters—six years—Dell has grown its global PC share! For calendar year 2018, Dell had 5.6% Y/Y growth and 1.0 point Y/Y share gain —both results are best of the top 10 in the industry.

Our customers tell us that they use their PC, in its many forms, as their entertainment center, productivity tool and to get real work done. We’re as maniacally focused on pushing innovation in the PC industry today as we were the day Michael founded the company in his dorm room 35 years ago. We started 2019 with a bang by earning a record-high 144 product awards and honors at the Consumer Electronics Show, more than any other company in our industry. We launched products and experiences that change the way we see, hear and immerse ourselves in movies and content. That change the way we work – allowing us to be faster, better and more productive, connected and mobile. And that continue to define PC gaming innovation.

FY19 represented a new high-water mark for Dell’s Client Solutions Group. But, as I look at what’s to come this year and beyond, I know we’ve only just begun.

These results speak volumes, and it’s clear our strategy is working. But as our founder likes to remind us – we are pleased but never satisfied. We will continue pushing ourselves to do better and bring to bear the full value of Dell Technologies for our customers. Because it’s your satisfaction and partnership with us that is the best accolade of all. Thank you.

* In some quarters, Dell was statistically tied for the number 1 position for x86 server revenues or unit shipments in IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker. 

Note:  Dell Technologies and Dell EMC are currently reported as Dell Inc. in IDC’s Quarterly Tracker products. 

Allison Dew, CMO, Dell Technologies

About the Author: Allison Dew

Allison Dew is Dell Technologies’ chief marketing officer (CMO). She is directly responsible for the global marketing strategy and all aspects of Dell Technologies marketing efforts, including brand and creative, product marketing, communications, digital, and field and channel marketing. Allison believes in combining creative excellence with data-driven decision-making in service of business outcomes and greater customer relevance. Since joining Dell Technologies in 2008, she has been instrumental in its marketing transformation, leading an emphasis on data-driven marketing, customer understanding and integrated planning. She is the proud executive sponsor of Dell Technologies Women in Action and PRIDE employee resource groups. Prior to her role as CMO, she led marketing for Dell Technologies Client Solutions Group. Previously, Allison held marketing leadership roles at Microsoft. She also worked agency-side in a regional advertising shop in Tokyo, Japan, and an independent, multi-cultural agency in New York. Allison earned her MBA from the Wharton School and an MA in International Studies with a concentration in Japanese and a BA in French and Japanese from the University of Pennsylvania.