HP Retains the Top Storage Spot

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HP retained the top storage spot in the first quarter, according to IDC’s Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker, but IBM and Dell are growing fast.

HP boasted 26.3% market share and $1.26 billion in revenues in the first quarter, IDC said (see table at bottom). IBM was second at 19.1% and $917 million — but IBM’s year-over-year growth rate was 16.8%, compared to a 6.7% decline for HP.

EMC came in third at $559 million and an 11.7% share, with a year-over-year revenue decline of 9.8%. Dell came in fourth at $341 million and a 7.1% share — but with stunning 37.5% revenue growth.

As the high-end of the market continues to suffer, mid-range vendors like IBM and Dell are shining. In fact, Dell and IBM were the only storage vendors of the top six to post year-over-year revenue growth. Sun Microsystems and Hitachi also experienced declines.

SANs Hot, Overall Market Stabilizing

Worldwide disk storage systems factory revenue was $4.8 billion in the first quarter of 2003, down 1% compared with first quarter of 2002, IDC said. The slight year-over-year decline was less than the 8% year-over-year decline that was shown in the fourth quarter of 2002, indicating a continued trend toward stabilization in overall market spending.

The overall market was buoyed by strong sales in the Open SAN (Storage Area Network) market, which grew nearly 14% year-over-year in terms of factory revenues. Meanwhile, overall storage capacity continues to outpace revenue, growing nearly 49% year-over-year to 175.6 petabytes shipped during the first quarter.

“First quarter results continue to illustrate increased customer adoption of network storage systems,” both NAS and SAN, said Charlotte Rancourt, research director of IDC’s Disk Storage Systems program. “Network storage for the first time represents more than half (53%) of the total external disk storage systems market, up 5 points from a year ago. The traditional direct-attached storage systems represents 42% of total external disk storage revenue in the first quarter, down from 46% a year ago.”

In the total external disk storage system market, revenue decreased 2.7% year-over-year in the first quarter. HP maintained its number one position with 19.5% revenue share. EMC was number two with 17.4% revenue share. EMC and HP switch positions in the total external RAID market, where EMC led the market with 19.2% revenue share and HP followed closely with 18% revenue share.

EMC continues to maintain its leadership in the total network storage market (NAS combined with Open SAN) with 26.3% revenue share. In the Open SAN market, HP led with 27.9% revenue share, followed by EMC with 24.5% share. In the NAS market, Network Appliance maintained its number one position with 37.3% share, followed by EMC with 33.7% share.

“Once again, SAN-attached arrays accounted for an increasing portion of the storage systems market in the first quarter,” said Eric Sheppard, senior analyst of IDC’s Disk Storage System Program. “This growth can be attributed to the strong end-user demand for solutions that enable efficient use of storage resources.”

Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Factory Revenue, First Quarter 2003

Source: IDC. Revenues are in millions.

	Q1 2003	Market	Q1 2002	Market	Revenue Growth
Vendor	Revenue	Share	Revenue	Share	2002/2003

HP	$1,260	26.3%	$1,351	27.9%	-6.7%
IBM	$917	19.1%	$785	16.2%	16.8%
EMC	$559	11.7%	$620	12.8%	-9.8%
Dell	$341	7.1%	$248	5.1%	37.5%
Sun Microsystems	$284	5.9%	$313	6.4%	-9.2%
Hitachi	$284	5.9%	$310	6.4%	-8.5%
Others	$1,156	24.1%	$1,221	25.2%	-5.3%

All Vendors	$4,801	100.0%	$4,847	100.0%	-0.9%