In the emerging market for containerized data centers, just a few companies hold a significant share. Half of all shipments estimated for 2012 were found to come from just four suppliers, while 80 percent of all shipments are held by nine suppliers. The remaining 20 percent of the market is largely supplied by local integrators and electrical contractors. These findings are from a recently published report on the industry from IMS Research, recently acquired by IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).

IMS Research classified the supplier environment in terms of three major company types. The first group is IT companies which include Dell, HP and IBM. These companies were some of the earliest entrants to the market and specialize in selling IT hardware. The second group, data center infrastructure (DCI) companies, include those that supply power and cooling equipment to data centers. Some examples of DCI companies are Eaton, Emerson and Schneider Electric. The final group, electrical contractors and integrators, include a greater assortment of companies. They can range from large integrators like World Wide Technologies and NxGen Modular solutions to small local providers that have sold only one or two containerized solutions.

The report estimates that IT companies will account for the greatest share of shipments in 2012. IMS Research Senior Analyst Liz Cruz explains “Given that these companies were some of the earliest entrants to the market with products like Dell’s MDC, IBM’s PMDC and HP’s POD, it makes sense that they currently have a stronger foothold. Now that the market is starting to see growth, a greater variety of companies are entering the scene. It will be interesting to see how the supplier environment unfolds over the next few years.”

IMS Research regularly analyzes all aspects of the market for data center infrastructure. More information regarding these detailed reports can be found here.