Cloud services to drive 50 percent of server shipments by 2017, says research firm

Cloud service adoption will provide benefits to server vendors. Beginning in 2015, a Dell'Oro Group report says, cloud data centers will become the key growth driver for server shipments while shipments into enterprise data centers will drop.

During the forecast period, the research firm said that cloud services will make up 50 percent of server shipments by 2017. Interestingly, the emergence of cloud data centers will drive vendors to develop new server form factors and new network speeds.

Vendors will begin to offer Ethernet network connectivity options for each server form factor for cloud and enterprise deployments. On the speed front, Dell'Oro says that a minimum of eight network speeds are expected to co-exist for server access over the next five years.

"The substantial increase in Cloud uptake stems from both a declining skepticism of the Cloud among enterprise accounts, and the willingness of Cloud vendors to hear their customers' concerns, mainly related to security and resiliency, and to provide platforms to meet their needs. We currently expect Cloud servers to reach 50 percent of total server shipments by 2017; a year earlier than previously projected," said Sameh Boujelbene, director at Dell'Oro Group, in a release. Release