Gartner: Worldwide ECB Disk Storage Market Declined 7.3 per cent

Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage revenue totaled more than $US3.9 billion in the third quarter of 2009, a 7.3 per cent decline from the same period in 2008, according to Gartner.

"The year-over-year decline of 7.3 per cent indicates that the economic downturn's impact on the disk array storage market is loosening its grip. The prior two quarters in 2009 showed declines in the double digits. This is good news for storage vendors, because it's the first sign of a light at the end of the tunnel," said Donna Taylor, Principal Research Analyst for Global Storage Quarterly Statistics program at Gartner.

EMC maintained its number one position with 26.7 per cent revenue market share. EMC's market share is more than double that of its closest competitor, IBM, which placed second with 13.2 percent. HP came in third with 10.8 per cent. Hitachi, Dell and NetApp ranked fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, by the narrowest of margins. Hitachi achieved an 8.8 per cent market share, while Dell and NetApp each achieved 8.6 per cent. Dell and NetApp's revenue was separated by only $US2 million. Sun Microsystems placed seventh with 3.6 per cent market share.

The Indian ECB market dropped a significant 20 per cent on a year on year basis, contrary to global trends and totaled $US43 million in July August September, 2009. IBM, EMC and Sun Microsystems continued to be the top three vendors and together accounted for 61 per cent share of all ECB revenues in India in the last quarter.

"The tide will change soon" said Aman Munglani, Gartner principal analyst. "While the previous three quarters saw a downturn in the storage industry, there was a strong pick up in demand during the month of September and many deals spilled over to the next quarter. The momentum is here to stay with a return to growth in 2010," he added.