New Wave of Financing Programmes Sweeps Asia-Pacific Server Market

Strategic Insights -

A new wave of financing programmes is shaking up the Asia-Pacific server market as tech giants Sun Microsystems, HP, and IBM engage in a battle for enterprise clients with low-cost systems upgrades. Sun Microsystems Finance is at the forefront, offering interest-free migration programmes to rival clients, making investment in information technology manageable for every organisation. The competition has intensified since Sun's entry, with HP and IBM responding with aggressive pricing and marketing strategies to maintain their market share.

Key Takeaways:

  • Sun Microsystems Finance's "HP away migration special lease offer" provides zero-payment and interest-free financing for 90 days on the complete Sun infrastructure systems package for existing HP clients.
  • The "Project blue away" programme is designed to encourage enterprises to replace their end-of-life IBM equipment with the latest Sun servers.
  • Gartner estimates that IBM maintained its top ranking in terms of revenue from Asia-Pacific server sales last year, with a 37.4% share, followed by HP with 31.2% and Sun with 14.2%.
  • Dell and Legend Group also posted varying levels of growth in the region, except for Sun.
  • Sun Microsystems Finance provides financing packages to 90% of Sun's customer base and handles transactions worth between $10,000 and $5 million.
  • Sun's Sun ValuePlus package allows businesses to mix and match lease-term length, purchase options, and payment structures to maximise their IT procurement budgets while updating business-critical computing equipment.
  • Sun Microsystems Finance has grown from hundreds of millions to over $1.5 billion in assets under management in the five years since its inception.

Statistics:

  • $1.5 billion: Assets under management of Sun Microsystems Finance
  • 90%: Percentage of Sun's customer base that uses financing packages from Sun Microsystems Finance
  • 14.2%: Share of the Asia-Pacific server market enjoyed by Sun Microsystems
  • 31.2%: Share of the Asia-Pacific server market enjoyed by HP
  • 37.4%: Share of the Asia-Pacific server market enjoyed by IBM
  • 25: Number of countries where Sun Microsystems Finance operates

Sources:

  • Bien Perez, "New Wave of Financing Programmes Sweeps Asia-Pacific Server Market", Asia Pacific Business Weekly
  • Sun Microsystems Finance, "HP away migration special lease offer"
  • Sun Microsystems Finance, "Project blue away programme"
  • Gartner, "Asia Pacific server sales market share"
  • Merrill Lynch, "Research on server and storage infrastructure market"
  • Sun Microsystems Finance, "Sun ValuePlus package"
  • Sun Microsystems Finance, Press release announcing US$1.5 billion in assets under management.