Worldwide integrated systems revenue is forecast to total $12.3 billion in 2018, an increase of 18.4% from $10.2 billion in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).The hyperconverged integrated systems (HCIS) segment will experience the strongest growth (55%), whereas integrated stack systems will experience a 5% decline, adds the research group.

Integrated systems are combinations of server, storage and network infrastructure, sold with management software that facilitates the provisioning and management of the combined unit. It can be used to derive the benefit of an architected design and deployment of integrated compute, storage and memory infrastructure to support digital business.

"The majority of integrated systems replace existing infrastructure, which is great for cost, agility and consolidation of IT and efficiency metrics," said Naveen Mishra, research director at Gartner. "When implementing this as part of a digital business initiative, however, IT organisations must look at how the potential savings of capital expenditure (capex), may be offset by potential shifts in operating expenditure (opex)."

Julia Palmer, research director at Gartner, said IT infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders must begin to shift thinking when evaluating integrated systems.

"The need to accommodate new workloads, integrate edge and public cloud infrastructure and reduce operational complexity is driving I&O leaders to look for more agile integrated systems," she added. "Next-generation systems emerging today are flexible, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled, software-driven solutions that meet the requirements of digital business."