Report: World Disk Storage Revenues up 6% over 2005

EMC, IBM and Hewlett Packard continue to lead the world pack in the data storage industry in terms of revenue and market share in all the major categories, according to numbers released March 12 in IDCs Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker report.

For the full year, the total disk storage systems market posted 6 percent growth to $24.4 billion, and the external disk storage market grew 8.0 percent to $17 billion in revenues, said IDC, which is based in Framingham, Mass.

EMC, of Hopkinton, Mass., maintains its lead in the world external disk storage systems market with 21.9 percent revenue share in 2006.

IBM of Armonk, N.Y., and HP of Palo Alto, Calif., lead the market in a statistical tie in the total worldwide disk storage systems market with 21.0 percent and 20.5 percent revenue share, respectively. EMC maintained the third position in this category with 15.2 percent revenue share.

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EMC and IBM posted the largest year-over-year revenue growth among the top five vendors during the quarter, with 10.8 percent and 5.0 percent growth, respectively.

Dell, of Round Rock, Texas, and Hitachi of Milpitas, Calif., rounded out the top five in a statistical tie with 8.3 percent and 8.0 percent, respectively. Among the top 5 suppliers, EMC and IBM posted the strongest year-over-year revenue growth during 2006, with 10.8 percent and 10.5 percent growth, respectively.

Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues grew $272 million in the fourth quarter of 2006, posting 6 percent growth from a year ago to $4.8 billion, IDC said.

For the quarter, the total disk storage systems market grew to $6.9 billion up 4.9 percent from the prior years fourth quarter. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped reach 1,030 petabytes, growing 48.5 percent.

"The adoption of networked storage continues to fuel the market," said Brad Nisbet, program manager with IDCs Storage Systems Program.

"In particular, we saw strong results for NAS [network-attached storage], which is indicative of ongoing interest in file-related storage. In addition, iSCSI continues to emerge as an alternative connection type for many customers as they look to simplify the environment for less mission-critical applications."

Total External Disk Storage Systems: For the fourth quarter, EMC maintained its lead in the external disk storage systems market with 22.1 percent revenue share, followed by IBM and HP with 18.6 percent and 13.7 percent revenue share, respectively.

Dell and Hitachi rounded out the top 5 with 8.1 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. Among the top 5 suppliers, IBM and EMC posted the strongest year-over-year revenue growth during Q4 06, with 15.5 percent and 10.0 percent growth, respectively.

Network Disk Storage Systems: The total network disk storage market (NAS combined with Open SAN) posted 12.7 percent year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter to more than $3.3 billion. EMC continues to maintain its leadership in the total network storage market with 28.7 percent revenue share, followed by IBM and HP with 16.6 percent and 13.3 percent revenue share, respectively.

In the Open SAN market, which grew 10.5 percent year over year, EMC leads with 25.3 percent revenue share, followed by IBM with 18.9 percent. The NAS market grew 21.9 percent year over year, led by EMC with 41.2 percent revenue share and followed by Network Appliance with 24.3 percent share.

Click here to read about EMCs lead in the world disk-based storage market.

The iSCSI SAN market continues to show strong momentum, posting 78.9 percent revenue growth compared to the prior years quarter, IDC said. Network Appliance continues to lead the market with 23.0 percent share, followed by EMC with 18.2 percent share.

"The market for network storage systems priced between $15,000 and $149,999 remained a sweet spot for vendors in 2006," said Natalya Yezhkova, research manager with IDCs Storage Systems Program.

"These products grew at a double-digit rate and, for the first time, outsold the higher-priced segment [systems priced $150,000 and over] during all four quarters," she said.

"Several factors contributed to this dynamic, including the increased adoption of network storage by mid-sized businesses and the growing demand for less expensive, capacity-oriented storage aimed at more non-transactional applications such as digital content, e-mail archives and replicated data."

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