Around 40% of enterprise IT users are planning to increase spending on converged infrastructure (CI) during Q4 2015, with 17% planning to increase spending on traditional servers.

CI is an approach to data centre management where a specific vendor provides pre-configured bundles of hardware and software in a single chassis.

According to a report, ‘The inaugural Voice of the Enterprise: Converged Infrastructure survey’ by 451 Research, around 17% of the respondents are likely to switch vendors in the coming quarter.

The survey showed that around 52% of standard server customers are using HP Proliant server computers, followed by Dell PowerEdge, which was used by 50% of the survey respondents.

HP ConvergedSystem, Dell Converged Solutions and NetApp FlexPod are the most preferred vendors among customers.

In Q3 2015, 25.2% used Cisco UCS as their standard server vendors, with 19.3% respondents considering Cisco as an alternate vendor.

According to the report, adoption of white-box servers is also growing with 4% of enterprises already installed white-box (unbranded) servers; and another 6% are considering a switch to white-box servers from their current standard server vendor.

451 Research senior analyst Nikolay Yamakawa "Commoditisation of x86 systems is catalyzing competition as decision-makers increasingly consider alternatives, including white-box (unbranded) servers. A growing opportunity exists for those vendors that can position their offerings to address key customer needs."