Dell And HPE Battle For Cloud Infrastructure Supremacy As Public Cloud Drives $12.8B In Q4 Spending

Huge Growth In Infrastructure Sales

Dell Technologies is widening the market share gap with its infrastructure rival Hewlett Packard Enterprise as public cloud infrastructure spending from the likes of Amazon, Google and Facebook continues to soar, according to new data from research firm IDC.

Worldwide cloud infrastructure sales for public and private cloud grew more than 27 percent year over year to $12.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to IDC. For the full year of 2017, cloud deployment revenue reached $43.4 billion, representing 22 percent growth compared to 2016. Here are the top five vendors who led the global cloud infrastructure market during the fourth quarter of 2017.

Dell Technologies

Market Share: 14.7%

The Round Rock, Texas-based company continues to lead the market in cloud infrastructure, capturing $1.89 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, up 29 percent year over year. Dell Technologies' 14.7 percent market share was basically flat year over year. However, Dell's share is now 2.6 points ahead of HPE, compared to the thinner one-half-point market share lead it held in the fourth quarter of 2016.

HPE/New H3C

Market Share: 12.1%

Although HPE cloud infrastructure sales increased year over year during the fourth quarter, the company's market share dropped 2 points to 12.1 percent. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based vendor generated $1.54 billion in revenue, up 9 percent compared to $1.41 billion in the same quarter one year ago. (Due to the existing joint venture between HPE and China-based New H3C Group, IDC combines the cloud revenues of both companies.)

Cisco

Market Share: 8%

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant saw an increase in revenue year over year, but its market share fell by 1.5 points in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 8.0 percent from 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. Cisco generated $1.02 billion in cloud infrastructure sales during the quarter, up 7 percent compared to $952 million one year ago.

Huawei

Market Share: 4.4%

The Chinese behemoth saw sales increase 34 percent year over year, reaching $560 million in cloud infrastructure revenue during fourth quarter of 2017. Huawei's market share slightly increased from 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 4.4 percent. Geographically, the Asia/Pacific region saw the fastest growth rate of 59 percent in cloud IT infrastructure spending.

IBM

Market Share: 4%

Although IBM placed fifth on IDC's market share report, the vendor had the highest revenue percentage growth among all the vendors. Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM captured $518 million during the quarter, up from $328 million year over year, representing a whopping 58 percent sales increase. IBM's market share also rose from 3.3 in fourth quarter of 2016 to 4.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017.

ODM Direct

Market Share: 32.6%

The ODM Direct group of vendors grew revenue 46 percent year over year to $4.12 billion. The group accounted for 32.6 percent of the market, up from 28.4 percent year over year.

"2017 finished strong for public cloud IT infrastructure growth, led by continued expansion by Amazon and renewed growth in Google and Facebook infrastructure," said IDC's Kuba Stolarski, research director for computing platforms, in a statement. "Public cloud, led by the hyperscalers, has resulted in the largest share of infrastructure growth, which is expected to continue at this pace for at least a few more quarters."