History 2002: Storage Software to Double to Reach $13.6 Billion by 2006

With advances in storage networking and the introduction of new low-cost storage options, IDC believes the storage software market will more than double by 2006, reaching $13.6 billion compared with the slight 0.9% growth experienced from 2000-2001, according to its recently released report: Worldwide Storage Software Forecast and Analysis, 2002-2006.

“The scale and complexity of today’s storage systems has created a demand for innovative, integrated storage software products,” said Bill North, research director for IDC’s storage software service. “Software suppliers whose products can simply automate the management of storage systems, and those who can keep pace with technology changes and emerging storage architectures, will have rich new opportunities and will continue to experience rapid growth.”

IDC also believes the SRM area will be the fastest growing sub-segment over the next 5 years, increasing at a CAGR of 21.6%. Growth is attributed to the adoption of more sophisticated resource management tools designed with storage networking in mind as well as increased corporate emphasis on making better use of existing storage systems.

The other segments comprising the storage software market – backup, archive, HSM and storage replication – declined in 2001 primarily as a result of the economic downturn and lower IT spending, but both are expected to rebound over the forecast period.

The following trends are expected to accelerate the total storage software market and drive healthy competition in the future:

• The increased networked storage solutions adoption in 2001 will continue as customers replace aging and obsolete systems with current technology.
• The scale and diversity of network storage environments is driving demand for increased interaction and integration between storage products that function in different parts of the storage management space.
• SAN management and storage resource management software are still a battleground for product differentiation and added value for storage hardware and software suppliers.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 176 on September 2002 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.