Storage software’s first decline in five years

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The storage software market has declined for the first time in 21 consecutive quarters, according to a report from IDC.

The analyst firm’s Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software tracker showed revenues in the first quarter of 2009 at $2.8 billion, down by 5.2 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Michael Margossian, storage software research analyst at IDC, said: "The combination of the normally slow first quarter for most companies with the continued economic climate was displayed in this quarter's results. A majority of companies displayed either negative or very low year-over-year growth.”

EMC still leads the group in market share with 21.8 per cent, although this has dropped from 24.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2008. EMC also showed a revenue loss of more than $100 million.

Symantec came in second but its market share grew by 1.4 per cent to 18.9 per cent. It also showed a small rise in revenue from $518 million to $531 million.

The areas worst affected in the industry included device management, replication and infrastructure markets.

Laura DuBois, IDC's storage software research director, added: "The overall storage software market was pulled down by the under performing large companies that make up a bulk of the sub-markets, once they start to recover, they will bring the entire market up with them."

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