Companies Looking to Cut Cost & Complexity Out of Storage Infrastructure Drive Growth for New Storage Technologies in the Second Quarter, According to IDC

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--()--Total worldwide enterprise storage systems factory revenue grew 2.1% year over year to $8.8 billion during the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15), according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker. Revenue growth was strongest within the group of original design manufacturers that sell directly to hyperscale datacenters. This portion of the market was up 25.8% year over year to $1 billion. Sales of server-based storage were up 10% during the quarter and accounted for $2.1 billion in revenue. External storage systems remained the largest market segment, but the $5.7 billion in sales represented a -3.9% year-over-year decline. Total capacity shipments were up 37% year over year to 30.3 exabytes during the quarter.

"Companies are increasingly using new project initiatives and infrastructure refresh as an opportunity to deploy new storage technologies that are able to drive cost and complexity out of their existing storage resources," said Eric Sheppard, Research Director, IDC Storage. "This is pushing critical investment dollars towards technologies like cloud-based storage, integrated systems, software-defined storage, and flash-optimized storage systems at the expense of traditional external arrays."

2Q15 Total Disk Storage Systems Market Results

EMC finished in the top position within the total worldwide enterprise storage systems market, accounting for 19.2% of all revenues in 2Q15. HP held the number 2 position with 16.2% of spending during the quarter. Dell accounted for 10.1% of global spending. As a collective group, storage systems sales by original design manufacturers (ODMs) selling directly to hyperscale datacenter customers accounted for 11.5% of global spending during the quarter.

 

Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Total Disk Storage Systems Market, Second Quarter of 2015
(Revenues are in Millions)

Vendor    

2Q15
Revenue

     

2Q15 Market
Share

     

2Q14
Revenue

     

2Q14 Market
Share

     

2Q15/2Q14
Revenue
Growth

   
1. EMC     $1,693       19.2%       $1,764       20.4%       -4.0%
2. HP     $1,431       16.2%       $1,317       15.2%       8.7%
3. Dell     $889       10.1%       $916       10.6%       -2.9%
4. IBM     $712       8.1%       $1,002       11.6%       -28.9%
5. NetApp     $615       7.0%       $765       8.8%       -19.6%
ODM Direct     $1,012       11.5%       $804       9.3%       25.8%
Others     $2,482       28.1%       $2,090       24.1%       18.8%
All Vendors     $8,835       100.0%       $8,657       100.0%       2.1%

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, September 3, 2015

Note: IBM's 2Q15 revenue excludes x86 servers due to the sale of that business to Lenovo.

In addition to the table above, an interactive graphic showing the worldwide market share of the top 5 total disk storage systems vendors plus the ODM Direct segment over the previous five quarters is available here. Instructions on how to embed this graphic into online news articles and social media can be found by viewing this press release on IDC.com.

2Q15 External Disk Storage Systems Results

EMC was the largest external storage systems supplier during the quarter with 29.9% of worldwide revenues. IBM, NetApp, and HP finished the quarter in a statistical tie* for the second largest ranking with revenue shares of 11.1%, 10.9% and 10.5%, respectively. Dell and Hitachi were also a statistical tie with the two companies earning 6.6% and 6.5% of worldwide external storage revenues during the quarter.

 

Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide External Disk Storage Systems Market, Second Quarter of 2015
(Revenues are in Millions)

Vendor    

2Q15
Revenue

     

2Q15 Market
Share

     

2Q14
Revenue

     

2Q14 Market
Share

     

2Q15/2Q14
Revenue
Growth

   
1. EMC     $1,693       29.9%       $1,764       29.9%       -4.0%
T2. IBM*     $631       11.1%       $712       12.1%       -11.4%
T2. NetApp*     $615       10.9%       $765       13.0%       -19.6%
T2. HP*     $597       10.5%       $596       10.1%       0.2%
T5. Dell*     $373       6.6%       $414       7.0%       -9.9%
T5. Hitachi*     $366       6.5%       $373       6.3%       -1.9%
Others     $1,393       24.6%       $1,274       21.6%       9.3%
All Vendors     $5,669       100.0%       $5,899       100.0%       -3.9%

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, September 3, 2015

* Note: IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide disk storage systems market when there is less than one percent difference in the revenue share of two or more vendors.

Open Networked Disk Storage Systems Highlights

The total open networked disk storage market (NAS Combined with non-mainframe SAN) generated $5 billion in revenue during the quarter. EMC maintained its leadership in the total open networked storage market with 32.4% revenue share. NetApp generated 12.3% of revenue within this market segment.

Taxonomy Notes:

IDC defines a Disk Storage System as a set of storage elements, including controllers, cables, and (in some instances) host bus adapters, associated with three or more disks. A system may be located outside of or within a server cabinet and the average cost of the disk storage systems does not include infrastructure storage hardware (i.e. switches) and non-bundled storage software.

The information in this quantitative study is based on a branded view of the disk storage systems sale. Revenue associated with the products to the end user is attributed to the seller (brand) of the product, not the manufacturer. Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) sales are not included in this study. In this study, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) sales do not reflect their OEM sales to Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.

IDC's Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker is a quantitative tool for analyzing the global disk storage market on a quarterly basis. The Tracker includes quarterly shipments and revenues (both customer and factory), Terabytes, $/Gigabyte, Gigabyte/Unit, and Average Selling Value. Each criteria can be segmented by location, installation base, operating system, vendor, family, model, and region.

For more information about IDC's Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker, please contact Lidice Fernandez at 305-351-3057 or lfernandez@idc.com.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC.

All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Contacts

IDC
Eric Sheppard, 508-988-7925
esheppard@idc.com
or
Michael Shirer, 508-935-4200
press@idc.com

Release Summary

Total worldwide enterprise storage systems factory revenue grew 2.1% year over year to $8.8 billion during Q2 2015, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker.

Contacts

IDC
Eric Sheppard, 508-988-7925
esheppard@idc.com
or
Michael Shirer, 508-935-4200
press@idc.com