Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues grew USD 708 million in the fourth quarter of 2005 (4Q05), posting 17.9% growth from a year ago to USD 4.7 billion, according to IDC’s Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker. For the quarter, the total disk storage systems market grew to USD 6.8 billion up 13.1% from the prior year's fourth quarter. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped reached 653 petabytes, growing 54.6%.
“The external disk storage systems market growth continued to accelerate through the year,” said Brad Nisbet, program manager, IDC Storage Systems. “Data growth was one driver, but the availability of affordable systems that support multiple tiers of storage to address data protection, business continuity requirements, and online, active archives also contributed.”
Total External Disk Storage Systems
EMC maintained its lead in the external disk storage systems market with 20.6% revenue share, followed by HP and IBM with 18.0% and 15.9% revenue share, respectively. Dell and Hitachi rounded out the top 5 with 9.2% and 7.3%, respectively. Among the top 5 suppliers, Dell and IBM posted the strongest year-over-year revenue growth during 4Q05, with 54.2% and 46.8% growth, respectively.
Network Disk Storage Systems
The total network disk storage market (NAS Combined with Open and iSCSI SAN) posted 24.2% year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter to more than USD 3.1 billion. EMC continues to maintain its leadership in the total network storage market with 26.9% revenue share, followed by HP and IBM with 19.7% and 13.6% revenue share, respectively. Dell and IBM posted the strongest year-over-year revenue growth for the quarter, with 64.6% and 54.9% growth, respectively. While IBM’s strong year-over-year growth was due in part to an easy comparison with an unusually weak fourth quarter in 2004, the company achieved its highest quarterly revenue in four years.
In the NAS market, which grew 23.3% year over year, EMC led with 39.5% revenue share, followed by NetApp with 31.8% share. The iSCSI SAN market continues to show strong momentum, posting 130.0% revenue growth compared to the prior year's quarter reaching USD 94 million. Network Appliance continues to lead the market with 26.2% share, followed by EMC with 20.6% share.
"The sweet spot in the market during 2005 was systems priced between USD 50,000 and USD 149,999," said Natalya Yezhkova, senior research analyst, IDC Storage Systems. "This segment, which serves the needs of a broad range of data centers and applications, grew to over USD 1 billion in the fourth quarter."
Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide External Disk Storage Systems Factory Revenue, Fourth Quarter 2005 (Revenues are in Millions)
