According to IDC's EMEA Server Tracker, in the second quarter of 2016 the EMEA server market reported a moderate on-year decline in vendor revenues of 3.7 per cent to US$3.37 million.

This is a slight on-year increase of 0.8% in units shipped to just over 530,000 but with revenues down this is probably to price cutting,  Looking at the EMEA market in euros, reported on-year revenues in the second quarter of 2016 declined by 5.7 per cent. Currency instability may continue to play a role in pound- and euro-denominated revenues, as the long-term impact of Brexit on Western European IT markets remains to be seen, IDC said.

The EMEA non-x86 market showed further negative signals in the second quarter of 2016. Vendor revenues were down 29.3 per cent on-year in the quarter, reaching just over EUR400 million, as CISC, EPIC, and traditional RISC machines all showed double-digit declines.

Standard density optimised server units decreased by 34.8 per cent and revenues fell by 44.4 per cent. Custom density optimised servers continue to outperform other models, with shipments increasing 51.9 per cent  in the second quarter of 2016 and revenues increasing by 22.8 per cent.

Eckhardt Fischer, research analyst, European Infrastructure, IDC said that this was strongly driven by the continued expansion of original design manufacturers (ODMs) in EMEA, a trend that IDC predicts will continue as mega datacenters and larger enterprises begin to source their hardware directly.

Michael Ceroici, research analyst, European Infrastructure, IDC said:

"The tempered performance of the second-quarter-2016 Western European server market was party fueled by a significant revenue decrease for IBM (-36.9%), due in large part to the refresh cycle of legacy mainframe units in the second quarter of 2015. As the largest player in the non-x86 segment (68.9% of second-quarter-2016 EMEA revenues), the drop had a noticeable impact on overall units and revenue for the quarter," said At the top of the vendor list, Hewlett-Packard (HP) maintained its position as market leader in Western Europe with 35.3% market share. A noteworthy category was Others, comprising tier-2 and ODM vendors, which increased in market share in Western Europe from 21.3% to 24.5%.