Worldwide server sales for the third quarter of this year topped $12.9 billion, according to research firm IDC; that's a 3.5 percent increase over last quarter, the largest increase since 2000. Blades saw strong revenue growth at 30 percent, high-end servers grew by 9 percent and low-end servers saw a 3.8 percent jump in revenue. Mid-range server revenue, however, decreased by 2.3 percent. Flat growth in the server market along with new virtualization solutions have forced vendors to drop prices in order to increase demand. However, if the market starts to see solid growth again, prices might rise. If you're looking to make some big purchases for your data center, now might be the time to do it.

For more details:
- see this CNET article