Sun's server white papers most popular among techies

Our latest BT Trax analysis of how our audience uses ZDNet content has revealed some very interesting trends in demographics over time. The first analysis focused only on server white papers in our ZDNet directory, and drew only upon the data for the top four server vendors--Dell, HP, IBM and Sun. Across 2004 we observed that Sun's audience is measurably different than that of the others.

On the whole, Sun's audience is more frequently IS/IT than non-IS/IT (79% IS/IT versus 21% non-IS/IT) while the competitors audience is slightly less technical--72% with 28% non-IS/IT functions. Sun also draws more developers than the competition. Dell, HP, and IBM draw more IT consultants than Sun does.

From a quarter-over-quarter analysis we found that Sun is attracting increasing ratios of IT directors and managers and developers among those downloading Sun papers. Dell and HP, on the other hand, are picking up larger proportions of network technologists and IS/IT executives. IBM also claims more network technologists with a second strong showing for non-IS/IT functions.

Trends in 2004 server resources audience demographics
quarter-to-quarter