EMC to competitors: We are after the whole storage market

EMEA chiefs remain optimistic about region's financial landscape as firm goes after remaining 70 per cent of storage market

EMC has issued a war cry to its storage competitors and set out its plan to continue to aggressively grow its market share.

In the most recent storage market figures, EMC was hailed the leader, taking 30.7 per cent market share. Not content with its comfortable lead on next-in-line vendor IBM - which took 15 per cent of the market - EMC's chief operating officer David Goulden said it has the rest of the market in its sights.

Speaking at the EMC World event in Las Vegas, Goulden said EMC is on track to snatch market share from its rivals.

He said that its current strategy has served it "exceptionally well" and added: "The opportunity for us is that unlike other market leaders with more than 50 per cent share, we are the storage market leader with [only] 30 per cent, so it still means there is 70 per cent left of the market to go after.

"We are very focused on getting to that 70 [per cent which remains] and it is a great position for us to be in as market leader."

During his presentation, he claimed that since 2002, EMC has grown its annual revenue from $5.4bn (£3.5bn) to $21.7bn, and put it down to the company's focus on gaining share and acquiring complementary technology at the same time.

He explained: "We talk about what we call our financial triple play. We believe as a company, in order to return value to our shareholders, it is important to do these three things simultaneously.

"First of all, [we need] to gain market share and [grow] faster than the market today. Secondly, [we need] to make sure we make the right investments for the future so that we continue to gain share. [We have to] do those at the same time as producing financial leverage - having our cashflow growing faster than our revenue.

"We think world-class companies need to do all these at the same time."

EMC's chief executive Joe Tucci (pictured) admitted that he wants the company to do a better job of returning cash to its shareholders but remained tight-lipped on how he plans to do so, simply telling media attendees to "stay tuned".

When quizzed on his acquisition strategy, Tucci admitted that he has his sights on some firms operating in the big data space, but refused to elaborate when questioned further.

European optimism
Despite conceding that the problems in the eurozone had not been great for business, regional EMC bosses remained highly optimistic on its prospects in the area.

The firm's president of EMEA Adrian McDonald said EMC's revenue has grown twice that of the overall regional IT spend growth rate, which it said stood at 0.8 per cent in western Europe and 3.8 per cent in eastern Europe.

He claimed that EMC's European business not only performs well when compared to EMC's Asian and American counterparts, but also against its external competitors.

McDonald added that EMC's future success in EMEA relies on the channel.

He said: "The EMEA go-to-market strategy is getting wider in every sense. Globally, more than 50 per cent of business goes though the channel, but that is a conservative figure... and it is much higher and accelerated in EMEA. The underlying success of EMEA is the growth and interdependence of partners and distributors."

Video: EMC's chief operating officer David Goulden explains how the firm has grown.