History 2004: WW Storage Software Market Up 17.7% in 4Q03 Compared to 4Q02

According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker, the WW storage software market grew 17.7% in 4Q03 when compared to 4Q02, reaching $1.78 billion in total revenue.

The full year 2003 storage software results validate the positive trends that started in 3Q03. Overall, revenue grew 8% Y/Y in 2003, injecting almost a half billion dollars of new revenue into the marketplace.

“Information is critical to the operation of every organization,” said John McArthur, group VP of storage research, IDC. “As we begin to move away from the most recent downturn, the storage software market is enjoying the positive effects of data centers, which are investing heavily to secure, manage, and protect their digital assets.”

Within the overall market, all of the major storage software segments posted double-digit revenue growth in 4Q03. The backup and archive market grew 17.6% Y/Y while the storage replication software and the SRM markets grew 14.7% and 16.2% Y/Y, respectively. For the full year, the SRM market posted the strongest revenue growth of 11.3%, followed by the storage replication software market with 9.5% annual growth.

“Storage software spending accelerated during the fourth quarter,” said Bill North, research director for storage software research. “The SRM market benefited from the wider adoption of more integrated software to manage complex networked storage environments, while the backup and replication markets were propelled by a combination of increased storage hardware spending and the need to support disaster recovery and regulatory compliance initiatives. IDC expects this growth to continue in 2004, with additional impetus from data lifecycle management solutions that help customers optimize the use of their storage assets and personnel.“

EMC (the combined results of EMC and Legato) led the overall market for 2003 with 31.6% revenue share, gaining nearly 2 points when compared with 4Q02. Veritas maintained its second position with 21.9% revenue share. Computer Associates edged out the competitors for the 3rd position, followed closely by IBM and HP.

Among the top 5 vendors, HP posted the largest Y/Y percentage growth in 4Q03 with 28%. EMC and Veritas also grew faster than the overall storage software market at 26% and 22% growth, respectively.

Note: EMC figures reflect the combined results of EMC and Legato, and HP is reported as the combined entity of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq. (Source: IDC)

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 195 on April 2004 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.