History 2002: EMC Sustained Lead in Front of Veritas in WW Storage Software Market

While disk array growth stalled in 2001, storage software continued to deliver growth as companies looked to better use the storage hardware installed, according to research brief Storage Management Software Market Manages Growth from Gartner/Dataquest.

WW storage software revenue reached $4 9 billion in 2001, a 3% increase over 2000.

EMC continued its market leadership in 2001, as its WW market share grew from 28.3% to 30.4%, while its nearest rival, Veritas Software, went from 18.0% to 19.8%.

If the $1.6 billion in array-based software were excluded from the analysis, Veritas would be in the lead, and EMC would move to the ≠3 slot behind IBM.

“Six of the top 10 vendors were able to grow software revenue in a very challenging year,” said Carolyn DiCenzo, chief analyst for Gartner/Dataquest’s storage group. “Hitachi Data Systems, which sells its storage array software directly and through HewlettPackard and Sun Microsystems, saw 59.4% growth and made the top 10 chart for the first time.”

Computer Associates’ plunge is particularly spectacular: -67.1 %.

But its new revenue reporting model makes its numbers difficult to interpret without a careful reading of their filings, according to the research.

CA now ratably recognizes license revenue over an extended period, which has resulted in substantially lower revenue recognized up front.

“The change in the world economic environment has put more pressure on vendors to provide a clear and compelling market vision that effectively positions the solution vs. competitive offerings and provides customer references confirming the advantage,” DiCenzo said. “The opportunity for software remains strong, but customers will be more careful with expenditures and vendors must bring more value to the table.”