IDC: Disk Systems Growth in Q2

Fueled by demand in the Asia/Pacific region and Japan, external disk storage
systems revenues grew 8 percent year over year to $3.5 billion in the second
quarter of 2004, according to IDC.

The Framingham, Mass., research firm, which defines a disk storage system as
a set of controllers, cables, and host bus adapters associated with three or
more disks, said total disk storage systems market grew 5 percent. Vendors
shipped 275 petabytes of storage in the second quarter.

Noting that the Asia/Pacific region and Japan experienced the first signs of
growth since the market downturn began, IDC vice president John McArthur
said in a statement that regional spending for disk storage systems is on
the rise.

Despite recent struggles in its storage business, HP maintained its lead in total
disk storage systems, including internal and external storage, with 23
percent of the market. IBM is No. 2 with 20.3 percent and
EMC follows with 14.4 percent.

EMC led the external disk storage systems market with a 20.7 percent revenue
share, good for a 19.5 percent year-over-year revenue growth for the second quarter. HP came
in a solid second with 18.2 percent, but the company’s revenue was down 8.3
percent from the year-ago period after suffering a 15-percent decline in
storage systems sales. IBM held the No. 3 slot with 13.5 percent.

IDC’s figures come on the heels of Gartner’s its second half storage systems update.
The Stamford, Conn.-based research
outfit said EMC’s second-quarter share in the external disk storage systems market was
23.1 percent, while HP logged 16.5 percent and IBM garnered 13.2 percent.

Logging 28.3 percent, EMC continued its lead in the networked storage
market, which IDC analyst Brad Nisbet said enjoyed significant growth in the second quarter.
HP and IBM garnered 22.4 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively.

“Leading suppliers are expanding their product offerings to help bring lower
cost networked storage solutions to a broader market, and this investment
appears to be bearing fruit,” Nisbet said.

In other areas, IDC said the networked disk storage systems market (NAS
combined with Open SAN ) grew 17.9 percent year
over year and surpassed the $2 billion mark for only the second time ever.

The open SAN niche is locked up by EMC and HP, which each have 27 percent of
the market. Network Appliance
leads the iSCSI SAN market with 44.6
percent to EMC’s 28.1 percent share. NetApp also maintained its leadership
in the NAS market, with 37.2 percent of the
sector. EMC trailed with 35.2 percent.

Overall, NetApp enjoyed a strong second quarter, posting a 26.5 percent year-over-year
revenue growth, the strongest among the top vendors.