This IDC study presents our adjusted worldwide and regional forecasts for the server market from 2012 to 2016.

"The market has returned to more predictable seasonal patterns. There are still areas in Europe that are experiencing economic difficulty such as Greece. Two-socket machines comprise the bulk of servers being shipped presently and are projected to maintain their leadership over the five-year forecast period," said Lloyd Cohen research director, IDC Enterprise platforms group. "With the continued introduction of higher-performing processors with multiple cores, customers are finding more benefits in purchasing multisocket server units than single-socket systems. The new Sandy Bridge processors will soon be shipping, resulting in an acceleration of the retirement rate as users look for increased performance. As the demand for performance continues to increase with limited space available, systems that can hold more multicore processors in a given space are becoming more attractive to customers."