Cisco Leads in Public Cloud Infrastructure Market; HP is #1 in Private Cloud

RENO, NV, March 24, 2014

New Q4 data from Synergy Research Group shows that Cisco ended 2013 as the leader in the cloud infrastructure equipment market. Having first taken over the pole position in Q1 of 2013, Cisco maintained a slim lead for each of the following three quarters and accounted for 14.6% of the full-year 2013 market – marginally ahead of HP and IBM. Cisco’s lead is thanks primarily to a strong position in the public cloud market, while HP has the largest share of the private cloud market. IBM is ranked second in both segments. Cisco also has a lead in the nascent hybrid cloud market.

For the first time quarterly cloud infrastructure equipment revenues passed the $11 billion milestone, up 8% sequentially and 5% year-on-year. Total revenues for 2013 reached over $41 billion, 7% up on 2012. Computing system’s share of total cloud infrastructure equipment revenues was 53% in the quarter, while networking accounted for 21% and storage 20%. The balance of the market consists of cloud management and cloud security.

“IBM enjoyed it’s traditionally strong Q4 bounce in revenues but didn’t quite manage to catch Cisco and HP” said Jeremy Duke, Synergy Research Group’s founder and Chief Analyst. “Cisco has hung on tenaciously to the lead it achieved at the beginning of 2013 thanks to its strong performance in public cloud, though it still has a long way to go to catch up with HP and IBM in the private cloud segment.”