Storage market bounces back after 10 quarters of decline

IDC reports revival in EMEA market in Q3

After 10 consecutive quarters of decline, the EMEA external storage market made a surprising return to form in Q3 as sales saw a double-digit increase year on year, according to market watcher IDC.

EMEA external storage market sales grew by 10 per cent annually in Q3. As in previous quarters, all-flash arrays saw the highest growth through a year-on-year comparison, climbing 40 per cent in US dollars, and accounted for almost one third (28 per cent) of overall external storage sales.

Hybrid arrays meanwhile saw 15.3 per cent growth while hard disk drives (HDDs) continued on a downward trajectory and declined by 15.9 per cent year on year.

Germany was western Europe's star performer, according to IDC, helping the region clock 14.2 per cent growth in US dollars (8.4 per cent in euros) during the quarter. The UK meanwhile logged a flat performance when compared with the corresponding quarter last year, but managed to buck the general trend of yearly declines logged in previous quarters.

IDC attributed "adverse macroeconomic conditions" to the UK's comparatively poor external storage performance.

All-flash arrays accounted for three quarters of overall storage sales in western Europe in Q3 according to the market watcher. Digital transformation, cited as a "top priority" for western European organisations, is driving flash, converged and hyperconverged product sales, IDC claims.

"After 10 quarters of uninterrupted decline, the EMEA external storage market has finally returned to growth, with most incumbent players recording a positive quarter or at least dramatically improving their recent performance," said Marina Kostova, research manager of storage systems at IDC.

"An interesting divergence has been happening in the external storage arena in the last couple of quarters, where all-flash arrays continue to appeal to many new and existing customers, but hybrid arrays managed to retrieve some storage users, especially in the MEA region."

Dell EMC remains the industry's top dog in the storage market, but the firm's market share dropped by three per cent to 26.14 per cent in EMEA, as sales also tumbled by three per cent to $429.18m. HPE also conceded market share, by seven per cent, but saw sales grow by nine per cent to $270.08m, helped along by its acquisition of Nimble which closed earlier this year.

NetApp and IBM both saw increases in market share as each firm's sales saw double-digit growth at 18.25 per cent and 29.10 per cent respectively.