EMC Increases World Storage Software Market Lead

EMC maintains a comfortable lead in the worldwide storage software market over second place Symantec, according to survey numbers released Dec. 11 by IT researcher IDC.

However, third place IBM and fourth place NetApp are gaining ground in leaps and bounds, with NetApp showing a startling 61 percent revenue growth over a year ago and Big Blue recording 39 percent YOY growth.

IBM owns 12.3 percent of the market overall, while NetApp has 9.4 percent.

EMC, of Hopkinton, Mass., registered 10.3 percent growth over Q3 2005 numbers on a record $699 million in sales to take 28.6 percent of market share.

However, Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec/Veritas (17.6 percent of the market) slipped back somewhat on only 1.4 percent growth ($433 million in sales) over the same period of time.

Symantec, which bought Veritas in 2005, had owned a 19.2 percent market share a year ago.

IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., sold $301 million in storage software and Net App, of Sunnyvale, Calif., sold $231 million in Q3, IDC said.

Overall, EMC has seen its software revenues increase to just over $3 billion, pushing the IT infrastructure company past CA (the former Computer Associates) to become the sixth largest software provider in the world, a company spokesperson said.

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CA had reported year-to-date software revenues of $2.9 billion.

The worldwide storage software market experienced its 12th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in the third quarter of 2006 with revenues of $2.5 billion, a 10.7 percent increase over the same quarter one year ago.

According to IDCs Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker, storage replication was once again a major factor driving the sectors growth.

EMC and HP strengthen their leads in the world disk storage market. Click here to read more.

"The market for storage software has performed very well over the past three years with the replication and archiving segments providing a lot of momentum," said Rhoda Phillips, research manager for storage software at IDC.

"IDC expects this trend to continue as companies focus on data retention requirements and business continuity needs, as well as storage consolidation and migration issues."

Storage replication, one of the largest storage software markets, demonstrated year-over-year growth of 22.5 percent in Q3 2006. Meanwhile, the smaller but fast-growing archive and HSM (hierarchical storage management) market posted a 30.8 percent year-over-year growth rate.

IDCs top six storage software market vendors (in overall sales)

Company, Q3 2006 Revenue, Market Share

1. EMC: $699 million, 28.5 percent

2. Symantec: $433 million, 17.6 percent

3. IBM: $301 million, 12.3 percent

4. NetApp: $231 million 9.4 percent

5. CA: $130 million, 5.3 percent

6. Hewlett-Packard: $119 million, 4.9 percent

Others: $543 million, 22.1 percent

All vendors: $2.454 billion, $100 percent

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