Shifting Brand Loyalty

As data center development has changed over the past couple of decades, brand loyalty has also shifted. Up until recently, IBM was the number one IT vendor in the world, unmatched by any other brand in terms of sales numbers or revenue. However, just like everything in the IT world, things are changing.

HP has recently surpassed IBM in popularity. Now focused on the data center market, HP is getting ready to meet the increased demand that goes with producing data center servers. HP's popularity increase seems to know no bounds. In fact, some recent surveys show that over 40% of IT professionals prefer HP servers to any other brand.

About Servers

A server is the hub of a network, and it is a data center's responsibility to have a high quality server in order to maintain its business. Rather than processing power, purchasers of servers focus RAM and hard drive speed to handle the network traffic. Energy efficiency is also becoming a major concern in purchasing decisions.

What Makes a Good Server?

So what influences the server buying decisions of data center professionals? Choice of a server depends on many factors, including availability and price, but most IT professional find these qualities to be extremely important:

- Quality: IT professionals report that a good server has high quality parts, a major factor in server reliability. A server is arguably the most important part of a data center infrastructure, and data center business is very closely linked to reliability and a high level of availability. Having a server with high quality parts is of the utmost importance.

- Support: Similarly, IT professionals require their servers to have an excellent support team. If the server does go down for some reason, every moment matters in trying to repair it. Having a good support team on your side can be the difference between hours of server downtime and days or weeks of lost usage and revenue.

- Performance: Server performance is another important factor considered by IT professionals when buying servers for a data center. Often, IT professionals avoid server brands that have caused past problems for their data center. Negative reviews from other professionals also have an impact on performance-based buying decisions.

- Customization: Another important factor in choosing a server for a data center is the ability to customize the equipment to fit individual needs. Standard specifications may not be appropriate for all applications.

Future of Data Center Servers

With the current focus on environmental responsibility, data centers are making every attempt to go green. The amount of power used by a server may become more of a factor in purchasing decisions as energy costs rise. Server efficiency may soon be one of the top qualities IT professional prize in their server purchasing decisions.

In today's difficult economy, server power usage is likely to become a major issue. Many companies are struggling to shore up the bottom line, and more efficient servers help them reduce their operating budget. In addition, new environmental laws are likely to make the “greenness” of a server one of the main purchasing considerations.