Server shipments in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), exceeded 78,000 units in the fourth quarter of 2011, an increase of 10.3 percent over the fourth quarter of 2010, a report said.

Revenues increased 2.9 per cent to $428 million during the same period, according to Gartner.

“The Middle East and Africa accounts for about 3 percent of worldwide server revenue. Server spending in the region declined in 2009 as a result of the global economic slowdown, however growth has been steady in consecutive years,” said Nandita Iyer, research analyst at Gartner.
“Despite economic unrest in certain countries in early 2011, the Middle East market ended on a positive note. The oil and gas sector continues to remain the major drivers of IT spend in this region, however other verticals like information technology, banking and financial services, telecom, tourism, and retail will further drive growth as the governments in these countries continue to achieve economic diversification,” Iyer said.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Dell and IBM had double-digit year-over-year shipment growth, while HP, Oracle and Fujitsu experienced declines. In terms of revenue, Dell and Fujitsu recorded double-digit growth rates with Dell benefitting from strong performance in the x86 segment.

Overall, RISC and Itanium Unix revenue in MEA declined 16.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. IBM leads this segment despite a decline of 15.2 percent. HP moved to the No. 2 position and recorded the sharpest decline of 31.2 percent, the Gartner report said.

“We expect growth to continue throughout 2012 in the MEA region with cloud and virtualization playing key roles in driving this growth.” said Iyer. “The MEA market is expect to grow 8 percent by revenue and 6 percent by shipment in 2012 The Middle East region will benefit from the diversification strategy with the governments trying to promote alternative businesses, and the development of local organizations will help in driving overall IT spending.” - TradeArabia News Service