Disk storage market recovers, posts double-digit growth

External disk storage systems factory revenues posted y-on-y growth of 17.1 percent, totaling $5 billion, in Q1 10, according to the International Data Corp. (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker. For the quarter, the total disk storage systems market grew to $6.7 billion in revenues, representing 18.8 percent growth from the prior year's Q1. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped reach 3,397 petabytes, growing 55.2 percent y-on-y.

"The worldwide disk storage systems market is off to a strong start in Q1 10, based on y-on-y growth, although annual comparisons are less indicative of market performance given the 2009 economic crisis," said Natalya Yezhkova, research manager, storage systems at IDC. "As such, sequential comparisons can provide more information on a market recovery. Although the market declined in Q1 10 compared to Q4 09, the decline was lower than usual. This is a positive sign, suggesting increased storage budgets and continued demand for storage solutions."

EMC maintained its number 1 position in the external disk storage systems market with 24.6 percent revenue share in Q1, followed by IBM and NetApp in a statistical tie for second with 11.7 and 11.1 percent market share, respectively. Hewlett-Packard and Dell ended in the fourth position in a statistical tie with 10.2 and 10.1 percent market share, respectively.

The total open-networked disk storage market (NAS Combined with Open/iSCSI SAN) grew 26.3 percent year over year in Q1 to $4 billion in revenues. EMC continues to hold the number 1 position in the total open-networked storage market with 28.7 percent revenue share, followed by NetApp with 13.7 percent revenue share.

In the Open SAN market, which grew 20.3 percent y-on-y, EMC was the leading vendor with 22.2 percent revenue share, followed by IBM and HP in a statistical tie for second with 14 and 13.5 percent share, respectively.

The NAS market grew 44.6 percent y-on-y, led by EMC with 45.1 percent revenue share and followed by NetApp with 26.9 percent share. The iSCSI SAN market continues to show strong momentum, posting 45.7 percent revenue growth compared to the prior year's quarter. Dell led the market with 36.9 percent revenue share, followed by NetApp with 14.4 percent.

"The first quarter saw a resurgence in previously declining segments," said Liz Conner, senior research analyst, storage systems. "In Q1 and the prior quarter, vendors introduced higher-end storage systems aimed at specific use cases such as data deduplication, storage tiering, and database storage. The high demand for storage in these use areas, coupled with the improving economic conditions, have led to 16.2 percent y-on-y growth in the high-end segment (PB $250K+)."

In the total worldwide disk storage systems market, EMC and HP finished the first quarter in a statistical tie for the top position with 18.2 and 18 percent revenue share, respectively.