Storage Sales Slow

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After three straight quarters of double-digit growth, the storage market slowed in the second quarter to a still-healthy 8.5 percent growth rate, according to IDC. It was the 13th consecutive quarter of growth for the industry.

According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Tracker, worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues grew 8.5 percent to $4.2 billion, while the total disk storage systems market grew 6 percent to $5.9 billion. Total disk storage systems capacity reached 704 petabytes, up 51.5 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

With 10.3 percent growth, HP edged closer to EMC for the number one spot in the external storage market. EMC, which grew 3 percent in the quarter, had a 20 percent share, while HP had a 19.3 percent revenue share; IDC called the results a statistical tie. IBM maintained the third slot with a 13.2 percent share, while Hitachi, Dell and Sun finished in a statistical tie for the fourth spot with 8 percent, 7.8 percent and 7.1 percent revenue share, respectively. Hitachi and Sun were the fastest growers of the top venders, with 17 percent and 19.1 percent growth, respectively.

The total network disk storage market (NAS combined with open SAN) grew 11.4 percent in the quarter to $2.8 billion. EMC maintained its lead with a 26.2 percent share, followed by HP and IBM with 21.1 percent and 11.6 percent.

IDC Storage Systems research manager Natalya Yezhkova said network disk storage systems growth was driven by NAS and iSCSI SAN sales. “As end users become more confident in the reliability and applicability of NAS and iSCSI technologies, they are deploying bigger and more expensive systems, shifting suppliers’ revenue distribution toward higher price bands,” Yezhkova said.

In the open SAN market, which grew 10.3 percent year-over-year, HP took the top position with 25 percent revenue share, followed by EMC with 23 percent.

The NAS market grew 16.2 percent year-over-year, led by EMC with a 38.5 percent revenue share, followed by Network Appliance with 32.6 percent.

The iSCSI SAN market continues to gain momentum, growing 72.8 percent and surpassing $100 million for the first time. NetApp continues to lead the iSCSI market with a 27.6 percent share, followed by EMC with 25 percent share.

In the total worldwide disk storage systems market, HP led market with a 24 percent share, followed by IBM and EMC, with 18.9 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

Top 5 Vendors
Worldwide External Disk Storage Systems Factory Revenue, Second Quarter 2006

(Revenues are in millions)
Vendor Q2 2006
revenue
Market share Q2 2005
revenue
Market share Revenue
growth
EMC $830 20% $806 21% 3%
HP $800 19.3% $725 18.9% 10.3%
IBM $547 13.2% $527 13.8% 3.7%
Hitachi $332 8% $284 7.4% 17%
Dell $326 7.8% $315 8.2% 3.5%
Sun $295 7.1% $248 6.5% 19.1%
Others $1,025 24.7% $926 24.2% 10.7%
 
All vendors $4,154 100% $3,830 100% 8.5%
Source: IDC, September 2006

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Paul Shread
Paul Shread
eSecurity Editor Paul Shread has covered nearly every aspect of enterprise technology in his 20+ years in IT journalism, including an award-winning series on software-defined data centers. He wrote a column on small business technology for Time.com, and covered financial markets for 10 years, from the dot-com boom and bust to the 2007-2009 financial crisis. He holds a market analyst certification.

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