Disk storage market up 7.4 per cent on year

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The worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage market grew by 7.4 per cent in the third quarter of this year, according to new figures by Gartner.

Total revenues came to $3.7 billion (£1.8 billion) with NetApp showing the strongest growth year on year among the top-tier vendors, with 20.4 per cent revenue growth for the quarter.

EMC maintained the number one spot overall, finishing the quarter at 25.5 per cent. Hewlett-Packard was the only vendor to lose revenue in the third quarter, dropping by 11.9 per cent, while retaining the number three spot behind IBM.

IBM maintained the second spot with a market share of 14.8 per cent, while increasing its revenue by 17.9 per cent over the past year. Hitachi/HDS also had 17.9 per cent revenue growth, maintaining its fourth ranking with a 10.8 per cent share of the market. Dell and NetApp were fifth and sixth, respectively, each with a 7.3 per cent market share. Sun Microsystems fell to seventh with 5.3 per cent market share.

The industry showed a sharp increase in the sale of add-on storage capacity compared with the sale of new units.

"While a portion is attributable to seasonal fluctuations, the majority of the capacity growth is the result of buyer compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations requiring not only data retention but retrieval as well," said Donna Taylor, principal analyst for Gartner's global Storage Quarterly Statistics program.

In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, external controller-based disk storage revenue totalled $1.1 billion (£556 million) in the third quarter of 2006, a 6.9 per cent increase over the same period last year.

"The market has returned to growth and was largely driven by an increase in midrange disk array sales," said Robin Burke, research vice-president at Gartner.

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