Storage Software Market Down 4.7% in 2009

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker, the worldwide storage software market experienced a slight increase in year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2009 (4Q09) with revenues of $3.09 billion, representing 0.5% growth over the same quarter one year ago, as well as 6.3% growth from the previous quarter (3Q09).

"The storage software market was able to increase in typical fourth quarter fashion, with all top six vendors showing positive growth from the third quarter," said Michael Margossian, associate research analyst, Storage Software at IDC. "Data protection and recovery was once again a strong market with the top four vendors showing growth from a year ago. IBM had the strongest year-over-year growth with revenues up 19.3% from the fourth quarter of 2008, while EMC enjoyed the greatest gains over the third quarter – a 13.1% increase – with the help of strong hardware growth."

"Sequential and year-over-year growth has returned for storage software, suggesting the market has started to show signs of recovery," said Laura DuBois, research director, Storage Software. "Another sign that bodes well for the segment is that, as storage consumes larger portions of IT budgets, driven by the exponential growth of data, the need for storage management and efficiency increases. Into 2010, storage capital investments are aimed at making more efficient and reliable use of data, data storage, and data management resources."

EMC led the overall market with 23.7% revenue share in the fourth quarter of 2009. Symantec held onto the second position with 17.5% revenue share, while IBM finished in the third position with 13.2% revenue share. NetApp finished in the fourth position with 7.9% revenue share while HP and CA rounded out the top 5 with a statistical tie with 3.9% and 3.8% revenue share respectively.

        Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Storage Software Revenue
              Fourth Quarter of 2009 (Revenues are in Millions)

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker, March 2010.
Notes: Starting in Q2 2007, IBM is reported as the combined entity of IBM and Softek.

For the full year 2009, EMC led the overall market with 22.7% revenue share. Symantec held onto the second position with 17.9% revenue share, with IBM finishing in the third position with 13.5% revenue share. NetApp finished in the fourth position with 8% revenue share, along with CA rounding out the top five with 4% market share in 2009.

        Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Storage Software Revenue
                Full Year of 2009 (Revenues are in Millions)

  
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker,
   March 2010.
  
Notes: Starting in Q2 2007, IBM is reported as the combined
   entity of IBM and Softek.

Taxonomy Note: IDC has updated its storage software taxonomy to reflect changes in the market over the last several years. The storage software taxonomy includes eight functional markets: data protection and recovery, archiving (including email archiving), storage replication, storage management, storage device management, storage infrastructure, file system, and ‘other’.