History 2000: WW Storage Software Market at $10.5 Billion in 2004

Storage capacities are growing at a tremendous rate in most enterprises and this growth is driving the need for more sophisticated storage software tools, according to IDC.

In a report entitled Storage Software and Submarkets, 1998-2004, the research company estimates that WW storage software revenue will grow from $5 billion in 1999 to $10.4 billion in 2004 (*).

“Due in part to the ebusiness phenomenon, enterprises are continuously looking to storage management solutions to assist in the management of increased storage capacities,” said Steve Widen, research director for IDC’s storage software program. “Because of the complexity of underlying storage architectures such as SANs and the increased demand for 100% application uptime and data availability, the use of storage management solutions will continue to increase rapidly.“

The trend in software storage is toward a comprehensive suite of backup, restore, archive, and HSM solutions that support heterogeneous platforms. According to IDC, this segment’s revenue is expected to more than double, from $2.5 billion in 1999 to $5.6 billion in 2004. SRM will be one of the leading segments in terms of growth and importance. IDC expects this segment’s 1999-2004 CAGR to be almost 22%. The overall market average is 16%.

“The requirement for more automated policy-based solutions along with a more predictive approach to managing storage resources by enterprises will be a key force in the growth of this segment,” Widen said.

(*) Dataquest remains more optimistic, projecting $14.7 billion for the same year.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 155 on December 2000 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.
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