Supermicro is the largest supplier of server infrastructure in the world. As of 2015, their products powered more than 20% of the total servers on the market. The company supports over 200 operating systems, a remarkable range for a single vendor.
Supermicro was founded in 1993 by Myron Gordon and Nelson Minar, two Silicon Valley-based data center professionals looking to break into server markets dominated by more prominent players like IBM and HP. The two founders raised $3 million in venture capital and began their venture to design a better server. They produced more than 60 custom designs for startups and small companies in the initial stages.
The company saw an opportunity to configure motherboards for Dell servers, one of the largest server makers then. This led to expanding the company’s business model, which started with designing servers alone. Supermicro’s first big contract was a licensing deal with Dell to sell motherboards and essential components like RAM and power supplies as third-party products. The value gave Supermicro a $150 million revenue boost in just three months, leading to a rise in stock valuation by over 400%.
Supermicro also partnered with IBM, which led to a partnership with Lenovo in 2010. Lenovo wanted to build their own data centers and used Supermicro’s UCS blades in the design. This partnership gave Supermicro a competitive advantage, becoming the dominant player in a new market segment. The company continued its collaboration with IBM by producing servers for its cloud computing services. This led to another significant alliance with Tencent and LeEco, two giants from the Chinese market, which is fast becoming the next big data center market.
In 2012, Supermicro acquired Rackable Systems for $3.2 million and expanded the company’s research and development team by 10% within six months. The acquisition was followed by the announcement of a deal with Red Hat in February 2013. Supermicro would supply chassis for Red Hat’s new Virtualization on Linux (VTL) technology, which was created to standardize Linux distributions across storage hardware vendors.
Supermicro has enjoyed a high growth rate throughout its history. In 2014, the company saw annual revenue increase from $400 million to $700 million and achieved a profit of over $100 million. As of 2015, Supermicro had gained a market share of around 50% in servers and 40% in storage, thanks to its range of products that can be configured for small and large companies. The company aims to reach $1 billion in revenue by the end of 2017.
The company has also been a leader in environmental sustainability and uses renewable energy to power its manufacturing facilities. Supermicro’s commitment to sustainable business practices has helped it make it one of the most trusted server brands on the market, with over 14,000 customers worldwide.
* Supermicro was founded in 1993 by Myron Gordon and Nelson Minar, two Silicon Valley-based data center professionals looking to break into server markets dominated by more prominent players like IBM and HP. The two founders raised $3 million in venture capital and began their venture to design a better server. They produced more than 60 custom designs for startups and small companies in the initial stages.
* The company saw an opportunity to configure motherboards for Dell servers, one of the largest server makers then. This led to expanding the company’s business model, which started with designing servers alone. Supermicro’s first big contract was a licensing deal with Dell to sell motherboards and essential components like RAM and power supplies as third-party products. The value gave Supermicro a $150 million revenue boost in just three months, leading to a rise in stock valuation by over 400%.
* Supermicro also partnered with IBM, which led to a partnership with Lenovo in 2010. Lenovo wanted to build their own data centers and used Supermicro’s UCS blades in the design. This partnership gave Supermicro a competitive advantage, becoming the dominant player in a new market segment. The company continued its collaboration with IBM by producing servers for its cloud computing services.
