Research outfit The Dell’Oro Group has said that server shipments to cloud data centers slowed down in the second quarter of 2015, but the sector continued to drive the overall server market.

Server shipments have recorded a tenth consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth.

Sameh Boujelbene, director at Dell’Oro Group, said: “Cloud data center deployments continued to grow and comprised a higher portion of shipments. However, Cloud growth was modest in the second quarter of 2015 compared with the two previous record-setting quarters.”

Signs are of a slowdown in the white box server market

Boujelbene added: “Capital expenditure (CAPEX) growth rates of the leading four Cloud data center accounts (in alphabetical order, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft) suggest a decelerating growth trend.

”Although this deceleration might be viewed as an indication of a maturing market, we believe that server shipments to Cloud data centers will continue increasing over at least the next five years and that the pause in the second quarter is temporary, reflecting the lumpy nature of Cloud data center deployments.”

Dell’Oro Group’s detailed server report shows which Cloud data center accounts drove most of the growth during the quarter.