New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS): Worldwide server revenue increased 16 per cent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2017, with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) leading the market, Gartner said on Tuesday.

The overall server shipments grew 5.1 per cent from the second quarter of 2016.

"The third quarter of 2017 produced continued growth on a global level with varying regional results," Jeffrey Hewitt, Research Vice President at Gartner, said in a statement.

"A build-out of infrastructure to support cloud and hybrid-cloud implementations was the main driver for growth in the server market for the period," Hewitt added.

HPE continued to lead in the worldwide server market based on revenue. Despite a decline of 3.2 per cent, the company posted $3.1 billion in revenue for a total share of 21 per cent.

Dell EMC maintained the second position with 37.9 per cent growth and 20.8 per cent market share.

Inspur Electronics experienced the highest growth in the quarter with 116.6 per cent, driven by ongoing sales into China-based Cloud providers, as well as global expansion efforts.

In server shipments, Dell EMC maintained top position in the third quarter of 2017 with 17.8 per cent market share.

HPE secured the second spot with 16.4 per cent of the market. Inspur Electronics was the only vendor in the top five to experience positive growth in the quarter.