Virtualised server shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010 grew to 19.4% from 18.4% compared to same quarter of 2009, according to a report by IDC.
New server shipments virtualised in 4Q10 increased to 398,617 units, with the majority of the growth coming from emerging regions.
The report revealed that after declining 4% year over year in 2009, new server shipments virtualised experienced 28% year-over-year growth for the full year 2010.
In addition, virtualised server end user spending increased 23.3% year over year in 4Q10 and 13.5% for all of 2010, reaching $16.8bn for the year, IDC said.
Worldwide virtualisation software revenue for all CPU types increased 36% year over year in 4Q10 to $877m, due to the maturation of virtualisation usage which mandates higher value virtualisation software management tools.
IDC said that virtualisation licenses increased 13% year over year and 32% for all of 2010.
HP held its top spot for worldwide new server shipments virtualised with 43% market share for the quarter, increasing 22% year over year in 4Q10.
Dell stood at second position with 26% market share following a 9% year-over-year increase in new server shipments virtualised in 4Q10 while IBM remained in the third position with 15% market share in 4Q10.
For 2010, HP increased its market share to 41%, up 3% from 2009 while Dell and IBM market share were essentially flat in 2010 at 28% and 14%, respectively.
The research firm said that VMware ESX continues to be the top virtualisation platform with total licenses increasing 21% year over year in 4Q10.
Microsoft Hyper-V is the second leading virtualisation platform growing 62% year over year while Citrix XenServer was at third place growing 25% year over year.
However, in the type 2 hypervisors, VMware Server and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 continue their descent, declining 27% and 51%, respectively.
