2019 IT Brand Leader Survey Report
Server Products

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Servers Brand Leader Survey Report
The 2019 Servers brand leader surveys cover 11 Server products.
This report includes the results of voting for six categories of brand
leadership for each service: Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Service & Support and Innovation.
Numerical survey data is available upon request. Please contact us at
info@itbrandpulse.com.
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2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey Table of Contents Page
Brand Leader Survey Methodology 4
Brand Leader Voting Definitions 5
Survey Respondent - Title/Job Description 7
Survey Respondent - Data Center Environment 8
2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey Winners Chart 10
Product Category Definitions 11
Summary Analysis 12
Rackmount Servers 2019 Brand Leader Chart 14
Blade Servers 2019 Brand Leader Chart 15
White Box Servers 2019 Brand Leader Chart 16
Hyper Converged Systems 2019 Brand Leader Chart 17
Server OS 2019 Brand Leader Chart 18
Server Hypervisors 2019 Brand Leader Chart 19
Server CPUs 2019 Brand Leader Chart 20
ARM-based Server CPUs 2019 Brand Leader Chart 21
Server GPUs 2019 Brand Leader Chart 22
Server LOM 2019 Brand Leader Chart 23
SmartNICs 2019 Brand Leader Chart 24
About the Author 25
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2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
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• Brand Leader reports are designed to measure the pulse of brand leadership in specific product
categories using results from independent, non-sponsored surveys with at least 200 respondents.
• The Servers Brand Leader Survey was conducted in May, 2019.
– Respondents were solicited from over 1,000,000 members of 100+ online IT groups, and from the IT Brand
Pulse database of 150,000 IT professionals.
– Responses were collected using an online survey engine.
• In each part, respondents were provided with a product category description, randomly-listed vendor
choices (plus an “Other” answer choice to add a vendor, if applicable), and were asked six questions:
1. Who do you perceive as the <product category> market leader?
2. Who do you perceive as the <product category> price leader?
3. Who do you perceive as the <product category> performance leader?
4. Who do you perceive as the <product category> reliability leader?
5. Who do you perceive as the <product category> innovation leader?
6. Who do you perceive as the <product category> service & support leader?
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Servers
Brand Leader Survey Methodology

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Brand Leader Definitions
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2019 IT Brand Leader Survey Report
Respondent Profiles

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Respondent Title/Job Description:
Other
VAR/OEM
Data Center Manager
Security Administrator/Architect
Executive/Management
Storage Administrator/Architect
Network Administrator/Architect
Server Administrator/Architect
IT Manager/Director
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2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Your environment is best described as:
Other
Public Cloud/Data Center Provider
High-Performance Computing Data Center
Product Development
Small-Medium Business Data Center
Enterprise Data Center
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2019 IT Brand Leader Survey Report
Survey Results

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
2019
Servers
Brand Leaders
Voted by IT Pros
Rackmount Servers Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC
Blade Servers HPE Dell EMC Cisco Dell EMC HPE Dell EMC
White Box Servers Supermicro Supermicro Supermicro Supermicro Supermicro Supermicro
Hyper Converged Systems Dell EMC Dell EMC VMware VMware Nutanix Dell EMC
Server OS Microsoft Windows Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux Microsoft Windows
Server Hypervisors VMware VMware VMware VMware VMware VMware
Server CPUs Intel AMD Intel Intel Intel Intel
ARM-based Server CPUs Marvell ThunderX Marvell ThunderX Marvell ThunderX Marvell ThunderX Marvell ThunderX Marvell ThunderX
Server GPUs NVIDIA AMD NVIDIA NVIDIA NVIDIA NVIDIA
Server LOM Intel Broadcom Intel Intel Intel Intel
SmartNICs Intel Intel Intel Intel Intel Intel 10

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
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Product Category Definitions
• Rackmount Servers: Rack mount servers with very high levels of redundancy, reliability, compute power, performance
and cost.
• Blade Servers: A blade server is a stripped-down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use
of physical space and energy. Servers are added by inserting blades into a server blade enclosure.
• White Box Servers: Unbranded or branded, e.g. HP, servers which can be purchased directly from the original
equipment manufacturer (ODM), typically without the service and support available with traditional enterprise servers.
• Hyper Converged Systems: Combinations of server, storage and networking and management software that facilitates
the provisioning and management of the combined unit.
• Server OS: Enterprise Server Operating System: Multi-user operating systems used to host tier-1 business applications.
• Server Hypervisors: Software that virtualizes physical server hardware, with each virtual server capable of supporting a
separate guest operating system and applications.
• Server CPUs: Multi-core processors used in enterprise servers.
• ARM-based Server CPUs: Server CPUs incorporating ARM cores and used in enterprise servers.
• Server GPUs: Graphic processing cards used for applications such as deep learning and visual computing such as
graphic design and video editing.
• Server LOM: LAN-on-Motherboard (LOM) network controller chip on the server motherboard. Typically a 1GbE or 10GbE
NIC chip, a 10GbE converged networking adapter chip, or a chip on a pluggable module (MLOM).
• SmartNICs: SmartNICs are softwared-defined, ASIC or FPGA-based, NICs that offloaded services such as virtual
switching (OVS), storage, data and network encryption (IPSEC/SSL), and more.
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2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
12
Summary Analysis
• IT pros vote Dell in every category of Rackmount Server brand leadership
– No surprise here. Once again Dell EMC is selected as the brand leader in the volume segment of the server
market.
• HPE selected again as market leader for Blade Servers
– HPE was selected again as market leader an innovation leader, but IT pros voted for Dell EMC as price, reliability,
and support leader…and for Cisco as performance leader.
• Supermicro overwhelming favorite as brand leader for White Box Servers
– The survey results illustrate that ODM volume with hyperscale cloud service providers does not translate to
brand awareness with enterprise IT pros. Supermicro owns the mindshare of enterprise integrators and IT pros.
• Dell EMC and VMware run #1 and #2 in voting for Hyper Converged Systems market leader
– The halo of the VMware and EMC Dell brands shines over voting for HCI brand leadership. The two captured
every category except innovation where IT pros selected Nutanix.
• Microsoft chosen as Server OS market leader, but IT pros like Red Hat Linux in 4 of 6 categories
– For the first time ever, Linux was chosen in more than one category of brand leadership. Microsoft Windows was
selected as the market and support leader, while Red Hat Linux was voted as leader for price, performance,
reliability and innovation.
• VMware Dominates IT Pro Voting for Server Hypervisors
– Yawn…VMware sweeps voting for brand leadership in server hypervisors.
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2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
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Summary Analysis
• Intel Sweeps Brand Leader Voting for Server CPUs…Except for Price
– It would have been shocking if Intel was not selected again as the leader in 5 of 6 brand leader categories. AMD
is selected as price leader.
• Marvell ThunderX is Selected in Every Category of Brand Leadership for ARM Server-Based CPUs
– With Qualcomm dropping out of the server CPU game, Marvel is winning a brand war of attrition against Ampere.
• NVIDIA Sweeps Brand Leader Voting for Server GPUs…Except for Price
– Once again AMD spoils the sweep for Nvidia by winning IT pro votes as price leader.
• Intel Sweeps Brand Leader Voting for Server LOM…Except for Price
– We IT Brand Leader research shows that server admins know who supplies their LAN on Motherboard (LOM)
chips, and they prefer Intel.
• IT Pros vote for Intel as the Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support and Innovation
Leader for SmartNICs
– The Intel FPGA and Ethernet NIC marketing machine has been hard at work shaping the minds of the IT
community. They have been rewarded with IT pro votes in every category of brand leadership for SmartNICs.
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2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Rackmount Servers
14
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
Dell EMC HPE Cisco IBM Fujitsu Oracle Lenovo Supermicro Huawei NEC
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Rackmount Servers?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Blade Servers
15
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
HPE Dell EMC Cisco Supermicro Huawei Lenovo
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Blade Servers?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
White Box Servers
16
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
Supermicro Inventec Quanta Pegatron Iron Systems MITAC Wistron/Wiwynn
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for White Box Servers?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Hyper Converged Systems
17
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
Dell EMC VMware Nutanix Cisco HPE/Simplivity Microsoft Stratoscale
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Hyper Converged
Systems?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Server OS
18
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Microsoft Windows Red Hat Linux HP-UX Oracle Solaris IBM-AIX SUSE Linux
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Server OS?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Server Hypervisors
19
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
VMware vSphere Microsoft Hyper-V Oracle VM Red Hat
Virtualization
PowerVM SUSE KVM/Xen
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Server Hypervisors?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Server CPUs
20
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
Intel Xeon IBM Power AMD Epyc Ampere eMag Marvell/ ThunderX
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Server CPUs?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
ARM-based Server CPUs
21
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
Marvell ThunderX Ampere eMag
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support
leader for ARM-based Server CPUs?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Server GPUs
22
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
NVIDIA Intel AMD
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Server GPUs?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
Server LOM
23
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
Intel Broadcom Mellanox
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Server LOM?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
SmartNICs
24
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
Intel Mellanox BittWare Marvell/Cavium Accolade Netronome Napatech
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for SmartNICs?

2019 Servers Brand Leader Survey
About the Author
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Samantha Griffin is a Manager of Brand Leader
Research at IT Brand Pulse.
Samantha.griffin@itbrandpulse.com