Despite the rapid growth in demand for PC servers, server manufacturer Sequent says the market for high-end Unix systems remains strong.
However, a Hong Kong research company has expressed reservations about the prospects for Sequent's Numa Q technology in Asia, saying that Asian users were hesitant to adopt open systems at the high-end.
The New Century Group estimates the China market, excluding Hong Kong, for departmental servers costing between US$5,000 and $749,999 will increase by 7 per cent to $474.8 million in 1997, but the departmental servers' share of IT vendors' revenues will drop from 11.5 per cent to 9.2 per cent.
While Sequent does not even make the top 10 list of total sales in China - where IBM holds top spot - International Data Corp ranks it as one of the top four mid-range server vendors on the mainland which it defines as hardware costing between $100,000 and $1 million.
Sequent, said there was huge and increasing demand - mainly from banks and financial institutions in China - for high-end servers. The company also regards telecommunications companies and governmental departments as attractive possible customers.
Sequent derives 10 per cent of its total revenue from Asia-Pacific. The proportion was expected to increase to at least 20 per cent by 2000, said Ian Miller, Sequent's new Asia-Pacific vice-president. The firm estimates a revenue growth of 30-40 per cent for the region in the second half of this year.
Paralleling the robust growth in China of Windows NT servers was a trend for corporations to look for large, centralised machines to consolidate their daily operation, said Mr Miller.
