Demand for Servers in Data Centers Will be a Major Driving Force of Global Server Shipment’s 5.53% Growth in 2018, Says TrendForce

According to the latest report of DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, the global server shipment will grow by 5.53% in 2018 driven by the surging demand for servers in data centers.

The demand for server soars in recent years as the result of industrial transformation and growing popularity of smart end-devices. The market shows growing demand for servers to integrate services, especially services requiring large sum of data for computing and training, as well as those on virtual platforms and in cloud storage.

Currently, HPE, Dell and Lenovo are the top three suppliers of server, and will remain their dominance in global server market next year, with a shipment market share of 17%, 16%, and 7% respectively.

Increasing memory density continues to drive the demand for server DRAM

According to DRAMeXchange, the increasing memory density of server will continue to drive the demand for server DRAM, and a data center needs 10Mn GB to 20Mn GB server DRAM on average. By 2020, major global data centers will carry out more than ten construction projects worldwide, of which more than 80% are initiated by data centers from North America. On the other hand, Chinese data center market is also growing driven by the government’s supportive policies. And the yearly growth rate is projected at 20% to 30% till 2020.

In addition to Intel’s and AMD’s introduction of new server processors this year, new data center construction projects carried out by Google, Amazon Web Service, Facebook and Microsoft Azure also boost the demand for server DRAM. According to DRAMeXchange, server DRAM is expected to record a growth rate of 28.6%, the highest among all the DRAM product lines in 2018.

The DRAM supply remains tight in 2017, resulting in a substantial growth of 40% in contract prices of server DRAM, says DRAMeXchange. In 1Q18, the price is projected to grow further by 5-8%. As for mainstream modules, the quotes for 32GB server modules in first-tier factories will hit US$300, and the price is even higher in second-tier factories, thus keeping the prices high in 1Q18.