Is There an Impact of the Financial Crisis on the Storage Industry?

Our opinion (Jean-Jacques Maleval):" Yes, we begin to see some signs of the consequences of the worldwide financial crisis. Several companies, including storage giant NetApp, are affected and project to record lower revenue growth. But probably, the storage industry will be less affected than other sector as the demand in growing storage capacities continue to be massive. How big will be the crisis for the storage sector? It will depend on what’s going on the financial institutions. If the customers as well as the storage vendors cannot find enough financial funds for their expansion, it could be a nightmare. Since more than 15 years, the worldwide storage activity has recorded a tremendous growth, in hardware as well as in software. Just look at the EMC figures since several years. This evolution could be stopped, but for reasons without relation with the appetite of the customers. It’s difficult to eat what you cannot buy and to sell when the customer has no money in its pocket"

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