ECB Disk Storage Mkt Grows

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage revenue totaled $15.2 billion in 2006, a 4.1 percent increase over 2005 revenue of $14.6 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.

IBM overtook Hewlett-Packard for the No. 2 position in 2006 (see Table 1). IBMs worldwide ECB market share increased to 15.8 percent, while HP’s market share dropped to 13.1 percent. EMC maintained the No. 1 spot in 2006, as well as increasing its market share to 24.8 percent in 2006 compared with 23.4 percent in 2005. Hitachi/HDS maintained its No. 4 position with a market share of 9.5 percent. Dell and Network Appliance were No. 5 and 6 with 7.6 and 7.2 percent of the market, respectively. Sun Microsystems rounded out the top vendors in the No. 7 spot, finishing the year with a 6.1 percent market share.

Large vendors increasingly control a larger portion of the industry as consolidation continues, and effective marketing and channel partnerships strengthen their relative positions in the market. In 2006, the top seven vendors accounted for 84.2 percent of worldwide ECB revenue, up from 81.5 percent of total sales in 2005. In the fourth quarter of 2006, the top seven vendor’s market share totaled 85.2 percent, up from an 83.6 percent market share in the fourth quarter of 2005.

“Inorganic growth via vendor acquisitions was a hallmark of storage activity in 2006,” said Donna Taylor, principal analyst for Gartner’s global Storage Quarterly Statistics program. “Private equity investment in the storage industry also offered alternative financing with which to fund them.”

Gartner Inc.