Top Performers in the Enterprise Hardware Market
The top performers in the enterprise hardware market are Dell, HP, and Cisco. This despite a strong push from both Apple and Microsoft. For the uninitiated, the enterprise hardware market is primarily for storage products, and unlike general consumer storage, enterprise market storage has higher scalability, greater capacity, and far greater reliability. It is designed to be used for an entire business rather than just a single individual. They are used by school systems, businesses, and the government. They are designed with multiple functions in mind, but the overall goal is to integrate technology across the entire scope of the business.
These systems can aid in linking together all areas of the business, while also analyzing each for the purpose of creating maximum efficiency. The systems can add reliable information access, help reduce redundancy by analyzing the numbers throughout the company, and provide reduced cost across the board. The systems themselves must continually evolve in order to keep up with technology, customer demands, and competition. As most people can tell just by looking at the yearly cell phone upgrades technology is moving at incredible speeds and everyone is working hard to keep up and remain at the top of their markets.
Even though this is not a new market, it remains an important one that continues to show both growth and new challengers such as Apple and Microsoft looking to take over a larger share of the market. Along with those two companies, Google and Facebook have been using white-labeled manufacturer from Asia to fulfill their needs. The market itself has grown slowly and steadily having reported quarters at over nine billion dollars. Of that market EMC lead the way at eighteen percent, HP came in second at sixteen percent, and Dell came in third at almost ten percent. Dell has since acquired EMC, greatly raising their market share.
The next thing to wonder about is will they continue to dominate moving forward and what challenges await EMC, Dell, and Cisco. There are many challenges that experts see on the horizon. As people have become more familiar with the systems, “Open Source” programs are gaining ground. “Open Source” refers to software and programs that modify the original program and distribute it for free.
Another change that some experts see moving forward is a new pricing model, one that could lower the overall profits. They see a subscription-based pricing structure. While this may not cut profits, it will require changes on the parts of the industry leaders. For the consumers, this will allow a more individualized plan.
A third industry trend moving forward is one that is coming at the industry on all sides. As people and businesses become more mobile, so must our data. The enterprise hardware market must adapt to the changes in the behavior of the workers of the future. Developing the tools to accomplish this will require more time, money, and resources. In-Memory Computing is also beginning to gain steam in the industry and as the technology advances and becomes cheaper companies must be able to meet the challenges that it will bring.
The last challenge that will be brought up is one that could propel any of the leaders or new challengers far ahead of the competition in the future. Business want a more visual and easier to deal with system. They want a system that they can “Self Service” more easily at the office. If one of the industry leaders like Cisco or Dell can move forward here first, it could provide a boost moving forward.
Like all industries this one is ever changing and the company that changes with it will be the one that emerges on top.
