Large storage deals make comeback

IDC says demand for $250,000-plus storage systems drove the market in Q4

Global storage sales rose strongly in the fourth quarter of 2010 off the back of a "remarkable growth" in sales of high-end solutions worth $250,000 (£153,664) or more.

The high-end segment took a big knock during the recession but has now recovered to "pre-crisis" levels, according to IDC, generating 30.2 per cent of overall disk storage revenues last quarter.

Total global external disk storage systems factory revenues rose 16.2 per cent year on year in the three months to December to hit $6.1bn, IDC said.

"There were multiple drivers beyond the remarkable growth in high-end systems, including demand for storage consolidation and datacenter upgrades supported by new product push from a number of vendors," said Amita Potnis, senior research analyst, Storage Systems at IDC.

EMC, which owns over a quarter of the market, enjoyed a strong fourth quarter with external disk storage systems factory revenue up 26.3 per cent year on year.

IBM and HP saw more muted growth, with revenues expanding 12 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively, while fourth-placed NetApp saw sales surge by 43.7 per cent.

IDC noted that recently acquired Isilon and Compellent's share of the total external disk storage systems market stood at 0.78 per cent and 0.55 per cent respectively.