Supermicro
Supermicro is a global leader in high performance, high efficiency server technology and innovation. We develop and provide end-to-end green computing solutions to the data center, cloud computing, enterprise IT, big data, high performance computing, or HPC, and embedded markets. Our solutions range from complete server, storage, blade and workstations to full racks, networking devices, server management software and technology support and services. We offer our customers a high degree of flexibility and customization by providing what we believe to be the industry's broadest array of server configurations from which they can choose the optimal solution which fits their computing needs. Our server systems, subsystems and accessories are architecturally designed to provide high levels of reliability, quality and scalability, thereby enabling our customers benefits in the areas of compute performance, density, thermal management and power efficiency to lower their overall total cost of ownership.
We perform the majority of our research and development efforts in-house, which increases the communication and collaboration between design teams, streamlines the development process and reduces time-to-market. We have developed a set of design principles which allow us to aggregate individual industry standard components and materials to develop proprietary products, such as serverboards, chassis, power supplies, networking and storage devices. This building block approach allows us to provide a broad range of SKUs, and enables us to build and deliver application-optimized solutions based upon customers' requirements. As of June 30, 2016, we offered over 4,950 SKUs, including SKUs for server and storage systems, serverboards, chassis, power supplies and other system accessories.
We conduct our operations principally from our headquarters in California and subsidiaries in Taiwan and the Netherlands. We sell our server systems and server subsystems and accessories through a combination of distributors, including value added resellers and system integrators, and to a lesser extent to OEMs as well as through our direct sales force. During fiscal year 2016, our products were purchased by over 800 customers in 100 countries. We commenced operations in 1993 and have been profitable every year since inception.