A server operating system, also called a Server OS, is an operating system specifically designed to run on servers. The Server OS, is a software layer on top of which other software programs, or applications, can run on the server hardware. This is similar to how a desktop OS, mobile device OS, or embedded device OS enables software programs and applications to run on those respective devices. The Server Operating System helps enable and facilitate typical server roles such as Web server, mail server, file server, database server, application server and print server. Any computing device, including laptops, desktops, iOS and Android smartphones, and smartwatches can be turned into web servers. The major types of Server Operating Systems are open source, dominated by Linux, and closed source, dominated by Microsoft and its Windows Server Operating System software. Red Hat is the leading provider of open source Linux Server Operating System software. The Server Operating System Market is relatively consolidated as seen with the major vendors having significant Server Operating System Market Share. Major shifts in the industry take years or decades. Learn more about T4's strategy consulting services here.
The market for Server Operating System shipments grew by 10% in 2019 with nearly 11 million unit shipments worldwide. The market for Server OS is expected to reach 12 billion shipments in 2020.
The chart above shows the Server OS market share of global shipments for enterprise Server Operating Systems in 2018. Microsoft Server was the market leader with a 48% share of the total server Operating System shipments while 34% of the shipments were for Red Hat's Linux based Server OS. Red Hat is far and away the leading Linux distribution within the Linux Server OS market. While Red Hat and Microsoft are the most popular operating systems in the server OS market, the "Other" section contains additional well known products and brands. They include Apple's OS X Server to manage Mac computers and iOS devices on a network, and many Linux kernel based operating systems such as Ubuntu and Chrome OS for servers. View the source for this Server Operating System Market Share chart and learn more about T4's strategy consulting services here.
The growth in the datacenter market is one of the biggest drivers for the growth of the Server Operating System market. Both consumers and businesses are increasing their use of streaming services, cloud computing and other data-intensive functions. This demand has collectively spurred greater investment in server and cloud infrastructure ecosystems that can handle next-generation data workloads. The growth also means that Server Operating System Market Share can be disrupted more easily than before.
Market research sources agree to a good degree on the Server Operating System Market Size and Server Operating System Market Share. The market is currently dominated by two main players - Microsoft and Linux, leaving little room for disparity in market share numbers. There is an overall consensus on the good potential for growth in the Operating Market size across most research firms. For a complete evaluation of the Server Operating System market, T4 recommends exploring all available sources. T4 aggregated and organized the data from these sources on the T4 Industry Research Platform. See Each source's view of the Server Operating System Market, Server Operating System Market Size, and Server Operating System Market Share and learn more about T4's strategy consulting services here.
T4 comprehensively aggregated more than a dozen reports from seven publishers covering statistics and trends in the Server OS Industry. This includes Installed base of Server OS by platform, Server Operating System Market Share, sales by platform, deployment type, and more than 5 additional statistics. The Industry falls under T4's Server industry coverage. Industries related to the T4 taxonomy include Operating Systems, Supercomputer Operating Systems, System Infrastructure, and Client Operating Systems. You can learn more about T4's strategy consulting services here.
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