History (1993): HDD Arrays to Serve $9.9 Billion Market in 1996

Although most of the participating companies started producing disk drive arrays only in the last few years, the array market produced revenues of $1.5 billion in 1992.

As the result of rapidly building demand in key markets such as network file servers and mainframe computer systems, disk drive arrays are expected to generate 1996 sales revenues of $9.9 billion, according to the new Disk/Trend report ($975) published by Disk/Trend, Inc. (Mountain View, CA) on disk drive arrays.

More than 60% of 1992’s revenues were earned through captive sales of arrays by computer system manufacturers selling arrays for use with their systems, with leading positions held by IBM, Digital Equipment, Compaq Computer, Tandem Computers, Data General and Hewlett Packard.

However, by 1996, the share of array sales held by captive producers will shrink to less than half of the total, as the new disk drive array programs by scores of independent manufacturers build to a project, 1996 total of $5.1 billion.

HDD arrays for network server and minicomputer applications are the largest segment of the array market, with $1.2 billion in 1992 WW sales. This product group continues to expand rapidly, with scores of new manufacturers entering the market during the last 2 years.

By 1996, sales revenues of $5.9 billion are forecasted for disk drive arrays used in network server and minicomputer applications.

Mainframe disk drive arrays generated only 17.5% of the total WW revenue of all types of arrays in 1992, a total of $259.8 million, representing mostly arrays with mirrored disk capability. By 1996, the WW total for mainframe disk drive arrays is expected to reach $3.9 billion, swollen by the delayed market entry of the highly publicized Storage Technology “Iceberg” and IBM’s eventual introduction of an array for its own mainframe computer systems.

Most suppliers of arrays for single user systems have entered the market only in the last year, and 1992 sales revenues were only $2.8 million. Although unit shipments for single user systems are expected to increase 10x by 1996, prices are typically low, and the product group’s revenue total for 1996 is forecasted at only $56.3 million.

Arrays designed for very high performance systems, such as HPCs, imaging systems and high-end technical workstations, were a $17.9 million market in 1992. Although several HPC manufacturers have recently added new captive disk drive array subsystems to their product lines, the modest growth in HPC sales expected through 1996 will hold the projected revenue level for very high performance disk drive arrays in that year to $72.9 million.

Of the 317 currently announced disk drive arrays listed in the report, 98 are RAID-0 or RAID-1, or combinations, designed for mirroring disks or striping data across all drives in an array. 46 are RAID-3, or combinations with lower RAID levels, optimized for high data transfer rates. 173 are RAID-5, or combinations with other RAID levels, optimized for fault tolerance, with the ability to rebuild lost data if one drive fails.

In 1992, the overall leader in sales revenues from disk drive arrays was EMC, which produced sales of $314.9 million from subsystems with mirrored disk capability for the IBM mainframe and AS/400 computer markets. IBM held second place with $209 million in sales of several subsystems for network, minicomputer and very high performance applications. Digital Equipment produced $204.9 million from sales of software and subsystems, mostly with mirrored disk capability

Disk drive arrays WW sales revenues

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 64, published on May 1993.