Storage software sales gain momentum in Q3
EMC holds on to top spot as market place records its 12th consecutive quarter of growth
The storage software market shows no sign of abating, as sales continued to soar for the 12th consecutive quarter, according to IDC.
The analyst firm’s Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker found that in the third quarter of 2006 revenue was $2.5bn, a 10.7 per cent increase on the same quarter a year ago. The firm found that storage replication was a major factor driving the sector’s growth.
Storage replication demonstrated year-on-year growth of 22.5 per cent in Q3. Meanwhile, the smaller but fast-growing archive and hierarchical storage management market posted a 30.8 per cent year-on-year growth rate.
Rhoda Phillips, research manager for storage software at IDC, said: “The market for storage software has performed very well over the past three years with the replication and archiving segments providing a lot of momentum. IDC expects this trend to continue as companies focus on data retention requirements and business continuity needs, as well as storage consolidation and migration issues.”
EMC led the overall market in Q3 with 28.5 per cent market share; Symantec took the second position with 17.6 per cent share; while IBM finished in third position with 12.3 per cent market share. Network Appliance finished in the fourth position with 9.4 per cent share.
James Ward, managing director at storage distributor Hammer, said: “The storage application market has become so diverse that the market has really changed, and this change has induced a lot of growth.
“Software is important, and software sales usually come before hardware sales. However, you can’t have one without the other; the software still has to run on something.”