Flash is the future of external storage - IDC

Flash technology accounts for more than half of total external storage value, analyst claims

IT buyers are snubbing high-end storage systems in favour of new flash alternatives, according to IDC, which said the latter now accounts for more than half of external storage value.

The analyst claims that the external storage systems market fell 9.8 per cent annually in Q3 to $1.57bn (£1.05bn).

The slump was driven by a 27 per cent fall in the value of traditional hard disk arrays. The decline would have been worse were it not for the rocketing value of flash systems. Over the same period, the value of flash technology jumped a massive 75.4 per cent, with hybrid flash arrays enjoying a seven per cent boost in value too.

IDC said this forms part of the move towards the next generation of IT.

"The transition toward the ‘Third Platform' is influencing purchase decisions, with users shying away from high-end systems, which declined for the tenth quarter in a row, to fully embrace new solutions such as flash systems, which passed the 50 per cent threshold of total external storage value," said IDC senior analyst Silvia Cosso.

The EMEA decline in the storage market was mirrored in the UK, which IDC claims is partly down to a slowing down of investments in the financial services space. The UK's status as a hub for storage startups means the region faces greater competition on price, which IDC said also drove the slump.

IDC senior analyst Archana Venkatraman said flash is doing well in western Europe particularly.

"The high growth in flash storage coupled with strong ODM vendor revenue growth shows that western European enterprises are heavily investing in disruptive storage technologies such as flash, software-defined storage, cloud-based storage, and hyperconverged systems when they refresh their infrastructures," she said.