Netapp, EMC the big winners in storage management software
Netapp, EMC the big winners in storage management software
Apr 26, 2005: The worldwide storage management software revenue increased 12.3 percent in 2004, an increase which was largely driven by strong sales in storage resource management.
Network Appliance experienced the largest growth in percentage terms of the leading vendors, with a 73.5 percent increase in revenue in 2004 over the previous year, catapulting it from No. 7 to No. 5 in the top ten list of storage management vendors.
That is according to Gartner's annual report on the storage management software market. The sector totalled $5.6 billion in new license revenue, up from $5 billion in 2003 (all figures US$).
EMC remained at the top of the list in terms of revenue earned, enjoying a 21.2 percent year on year growth. Veritas, IBM and Computer Associates made up the rest of the top four, as they did in 2003, but Network Appliance is closing in, and will likely break into the top four next year.
The storage resource management (SRM) segment grew 30.8 percent to reach $612 million in 2004. This segment includes products that monitor and manage the capacity and performance across multiple storage and server platforms.
"Storage resource management was the second smallest segment in 2004, but it is expected to continue to record fast growth as enterprises look to better manage storage capacity utilisation and begin to automate some of the management functions," said Carolyn DiCenzo, research vice president at Gartner. "For some companies, the need to manage IT as a utility with service-level agreements between IT and the business units is also driving new requirements and increased interest in SRM."
The worldwide storage management software market is poised for double-digit growth in 2005, with worldwide new license revenue projected to reach $6.3 billion, a 12 percent increase from 2004.
Compliance requirements will drive archiving and data protection growth. Gartner analysts said vendors will try to leverage the focus on compliance by claiming that their products are compliance solutions.
"The need to better incorporate electronic records into a total records management solution will offer real opportunity for storage vendors, but customers will need to look beyond the hype to determine exactly how a specific storage product will fit into their process," said DiCenzo. "Storage vendors will play a significant part in providing some of the tools needed to do Information Life Cycle Management (ILM) but understanding the content will be a key component that will take more than just storage tools."
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