FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--BUSINESS WIRE--Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues posted year-over-year growth of 17.1%, totaling $5.0 billion, in the first quarter of 2010 1Q10, according to the International Data Corporation 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% growth from the prior year's first quarter. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped reach 3,397 petabytes, growing 55.2% year over year.

“As such, sequential comparisons can provide more information on a market recovery. Although the market declined in Q1 2010 compared to Q4 2009, the decline was lower than usual. This is a positive sign, suggesting increased storage budgets and continued demand for storage solutions.”

"The worldwide disk storage systems market is off to a strong start in Q1 2010, based on year-over-year 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 2010 compared to Q4 2009, the decline was lower than usual. This is a positive sign, suggesting increased storage budgets and continued demand for storage solutions."

Total External Disk Storage Systems

EMC maintained its number 1 position in the external disk storage systems market with 24.6% revenue share in the first quarter, followed by IBM and NetApp in a statistical tie* for second with 11.7% and 11.1% market share, respectively. HP and Dell ended in the fourth position in a statistical tie* with 10.2% and 10.1% market share, respectively.

Open Networked Disk Storage Systems

The total open networked disk storage market NAS Combined with Open/iSCSI SAN grew 26.3% year over year in the first quarter to $4.0 billion in revenues. EMC continues to hold the number 1 position in the total open networked storage market with 28.7% revenue share, followed by NetApp with 13.7% revenue share.

In the Open SAN market, which grew 20.3% year over year, EMC was the leading vendor with 22.2% revenue share, followed by IBM and HP in a statistical tie* for second with 14.0% and 13.5% share, respectively.

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

"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% year-over-year growth in the high end segment PB $250K+."

Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide External Disk Storage Systems Factory Revenue, First Quarter of 2010

Revenues are in Millions

Source: IDC Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker, June 3, 2010

* Notes:

• IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide disk storage market when there is less than one percent difference in the factory revenues of two or more vendors.
• Starting in Q3 2009, EMC is reported as the combined entity of EMC and Data Domain.

Total Disk Storage Systems Market

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 18.0% revenue share, respectively.

Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Total Disk Storage Systems Factory Revenue, First Quarter of 2010

Revenues are in Millions

Source: IDC Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker, June 4, 2010

* Notes:

• IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide disk storage market when there is less than one percent difference in the factory revenues of two or more vendors.
• Starting in Q3 2009, EMC is reported as the combined entity of EMC and Data Domain.

Taxonomy Notes:

IDC defines a Disk Storage System as a set of storage elements, including controllers, cables, and in some instances host bus adapters, associated with three or more disks. A system may be located outside of or within a server cabinet and the average cost of the disk storage systems does not include infrastructure storage hardware i.e. switches and non-bundled storage software.

The information in this quantitative study is based on a branded view of the disk storage systems sale. Revenue associated with the products to the end user is attributed to the seller brand of the product, not the manufacturer. Original equipment manufacturer OEM sales are not included in this study. In this study, Hitachi Data Systems HDS sales do not reflect their OEM sales to Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.

IDC's Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker is a quantitative tool for analyzing the global disk storage market on a quarterly basis. The Tracker includes quarterly shipments and revenues both customer and factory, Terabytes, $/Gigabyte, Gigabyte/Unit, and Average Selling Value. Each criteria can be segmented by location, installation base, operating system, vendor, family, model, and region.

For more information about IDC's Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker, please contact Hoang Nguyen at 508-935-4718 or hnguyen at idc.com.

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