WW External Disk Market Grew 1.9% in 4Q12, 4.9% in 2012 – Gartner

Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage vendor revenue totaled $6.0 billion in 4Q12, a 1.9% increase from revenue of $5.9 billion in 4Q11, according to Gartner, Inc.‘s report Quarterly Statistics: Disk Array Storage, All Regions, All Countries, 4Q12 Update.

"The fourth quarter 2012 results represent the 13th consecutive quarter of revenue growth," said Roger Cox, research VP at Gartner. "However, the anemic year-over-year 1.9% growth is a reflection of the dour macroeconomics in North America and in Europe, as well as a slowing economy in the AsiaPac region."

EMC, Hitachi/HDS and NetApp beat the year-over-year market growth rate in the fourth quarter. EMC gained share with its fit-for-purpose VNX, VMAX and Data Domain platforms, as well as the accretive influence of the Isilon acquisition. After a couple of spotty quarters, and with most its platform portfolio (FAS2000/FAS3000) refreshed, coupled with improving traction of its clustered Data ONTAP OS, NetApp realized above-market results. With best-in-class year-over-year revenue growth performance, the high-end VSP remained Hitachi/HDS’s primary strength.

    WW External Controller-Based Disk Storage Vendor
                 
Revenue Estimates for 4Q12
                           
(in $ million)

(Source: Gartner, March 2013)
Note 1: EMC revenue excludes OEM revenue from Dell and Fujitsu Technology Solutions.
Note 2: NetApp revenue excludes ONTAP OEM revenue from IBM and Engenio OEM revenue.
Note 3: Hitachi/HDS revenue excludes OEM revenue from HP.
Note 4: Fujitsu’s branded revenue does not include products sold under the EMC and NetApp brands.

Dell, HP and IBM continue to underperform the market and lose share for fundamentally the same reasons. Their new product year-over-year revenue gains are insufficient to offset the year-over-year decline of the products being replaced. Moreover, Dell may be suffering from organizational and structural issues that are hampering sales. HP continues to struggle with balancing the decline in what it classifies as ‘traditional storage’ with its growing ‘converged’ go-to-market model. IBM’s strategy of emphasizing its IP-based disk storage products is gaining traction, but is not yet strong enough to offset declines in technology sourced from NetApp.

For the year, worldwide disk storage vendor revenue totaled $22.3 billion in 2012, a 4.9% increase from revenue of $21.2 billion in 2011. Only EMC and Hitachi/HDS topped the market, but NetApp and Dell did achieve year-over-year revenue gains. Dell was stronger in the first half of 2012, while NetApp came on strong in the second half of 2012. Although pricing per terabyte continues to decline as expected, the ASP per unit increased 6.8% in 2012, signaling larger configurations.

 
WW External Controller-Based Disk Storage Vendor
                
Revenue Estimates for 2012
                           
(in $ million)

(Source: Gartner, March 2013)
Note 1: EMC revenue excludes OEM revenue from Dell and Fujitsu Technology Solutions.
Note 2: NetApp revenue excludes ONTAP OEM revenue from IBM and Engenio OEM revenue.
Note 3: Hitachi/HDS revenue excludes OEM revenue from HP.
Note 4: Fujitsu’s branded revenue does not include products sold under the EMC and NetApp brands.

Gartner ECB disk storage reports reflect vendor-branded hardware-only revenue, as well as hardware revenue associated with financial leases and managed services. Optional and separately priced storage software revenue and SAN infrastructure components are excluded.