Global ECB Disk Storage Market Declined 7.3 Percent In Q309: Gartner

Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage revenue totalled more than $3.9 billion in the third quarter of 2009, a 7.3 percent decline from the same period in 2008, according to Gartner.

“The year-over-year decline of 7.3 percent indicates that the economic downturn’s impact on the disk array storage market is loosening its grip. The prior two quarters in 2009 showed declines in the double digits. This is good news for storage vendors, because it’s the first sign of a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Donna Taylor, Principal Research Analyst for Gartner’s global Storage Quarterly Statistics program.

EMC maintained its No 1 position with 26.7 percent revenue market share. EMC’s market share is more than double that of its closest competitor, IBM, which placed second with 13.2 percent. HP came in third with 10.8 percent. Hitachi, Dell and NetApp ranked fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, by the narrowest of margins. Hitachi achieved an 8.8 percent market share, while Dell and NetApp each achieved 8.6 percent. Dell and NetApp’s revenue was separated by only $2 million. Sun Microsystems placed seventh with 3.6 percent market share.

India Perspective

The Indian ECB market dropped a significant 20 percent on a year-on-year basis, contrary to global trends and totalled $43 million in July-August-September 2009. IBM, EMC and Sun Microsystems continued to be the top three vendors and together accounted for 61 percent share of all ECB revenues in India in the last quarter.

“The tide will change soon,” says Aman Munglani, Principal Analyst, Gartner. “While the previous three quarters saw a downturn in the storage industry, there was a strong pick up in demand during the month of September and many deals spilled over to the next quarter. The momentum is here to stay with a return to growth in 2010,” he added.