Revenue continues to grow in external controller-based disk storage market

Revenue in the global external controller-based (ECB) disk storage market increased by 11.2 per cent last year to $14.7bn, compared to 2004, according to figures from analyst Gartner.

EMC continued to lead the market with a 23.3 per cent share, despite a 0.2 per cent decline compared with 2004.

EMC was followed by Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Hitachi Data Systems and Network Appliance, who each saw market share increases of 0.3, 1.9, 0.2 and 0.6 per cent respectively.

Donna Taylor, principal analyst for Gartner’s global storage quarterly statistics program, said: “The increase in market share among the top seven vendors in 2005 is due in part to increased consolidation, strategic alliances, and partnerships.”

Dell experienced the strongest growth of all the top seven vendors with a 42.1 per cent increase to $1.1bn, compared with $782.8m in 2004. The vendor also generated a 1.7 per cent increase in market share for 2005, compared with 5.9 per cent in 2004.

However, Sun was the only one of the top seven vendors to decline in both market share and revenue. It dropped 0.7 per cent share in 2005 and saw its ECB market revenue decline by $6.7m in 2005, compared with $832m the previous year.

Thomas Evans-Argent, IBM storage business manager at distributor Interface Solutions, said: “I believe Sun will bounce back in this market soon.”