Storage vendors prosper in tough times - First In/First Out

Computer Technology Review, March, 2003 by Louis Raphael

At a time when many companies are suffering the consequences of a weak economy, computer storage vendors have managed to remain unharmed.

According to the market research firm International Data Corp., worldwide revenue of data storage sales reached $5.4 billion in Q4, signaling a 12 percent increase from the previous quarter. In addition, full year 2002 revenue was better than expected, declining only 15 percent from 2001, versus a 20 percent anticipated decline.

Competition during this quarter was fierce in the race for market share and was marked by several ties. In the fourth quarter, HP and IBM tied for the number one position, each with 25 percent revenue share. There was also a three-way tie for the number four position between Sun Microsystems, Dell and Hitachi--although Sun Microsystems posted the strongest growth among the three with a 17 percent increase in revenue from Q3 2002.

In the total external storage system market, revenue increased 12 percent in the fourth quarter. HP maintained its number one position with a 21 percent revenue market share. IBM and EMC, tied for second, each with 17 percent revenue share. Similar results were found in the total external RAID market, where HP and EMC tied for the number one position, each with 19 percent revenue share.

The Open SAN market outperformed the overall market, with a 14 percent growth from the third quarter. The NAS market was weaker, yet slowly continues to grow at four percent. In the Open SAN market, HP led with 28 percent revenue share, followed by EMC with 26 percent share. In the NAS market, Network Appliance maintained its number one position with 36 percent share, followed by EMC with 33 percent share. EMC continues to maintain its leadership in the total network storage market (NAS combined with Open SAN) with a 28 percent revenue share.

But the big winner this year would have to be HP, who, thanks in part to its recent acquisition of Compaq, bumped IBM and gained first place, with 21 percent revenue share for the total disk storage systems market. IBM and Dell posted the largest year-over-year growth among the top five vendors, with 15 percent and 13 percent year-over-year growth respectively.

Source: IDC