Information systems vendor EMC
grew its storage software
revenues $145 million in the first quarter of 2004 year-over-year, as the
overall market grew 23.3 percent on revenues of $1.85 billion for the same
period.
According to market researcher IDC, while EMC’s results were buoyed by its
acquisition
of Legato, the market performed well overall, with the sales representing
two quarters of consecutive year-over-year growth.
In fact, there was across-the-board growth in the space in Q1, as all of the
major storage software segments posted double-digit revenue growth in the
first quarter of 2004 as compared to the same quarter in 2003, IDC said in
a statement.
Although the back-up and archive software market remained the leading
segment and grew 22 percent in Q1, growth among the independent niches was
led by storage resource management (SRM), which grew by nearly a third (32.3
percent). The storage replication software and file system software markets
grew 18.1 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively.
The financial evidence points to the notion that customers remain focused on
preserving and replicating their files to meet the often stringent
requirements of federal record-keeping rules, such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley
and SEC 17a-4.
Bill North, research director for storage software at IDC, said he expects
continued growth in the space throughout 2004 and noted that SRM software,
which helps increase operational efficiency and improve storage asset
utilization, continues to be a popular sell.
EMC, which grabbed 2.7 percentage points from Q1 2003 en route to posting a
total market share of 30.1 percent, earned $556 million on Q1 2004 compared
to $411 earned for the same frame last year. This figure was $7 million less
than what EMC earned in
Q4 2003, but still highlights the success of the company’s information
lifecycle management strategy for managing data.
VERITAS Software came in second with 22.8 percent revenue
share, watching its sales grow from $340 million in Q1 2003 to $421 million
for the same quarter this year. This EMC rival is winning customers over
with its utility computing approach to give users greater control over their
resources.
Computer Associates held the third slot, posting revenue
growth of $36 million, from $139 to $175 million for the Q1 20003 to Q1 2004
period. CA currently holds 9.5 percent of the market. IBM
and HP round out that top five storage software makers, with
8.2 and 6.9 percent of the market, respectively.
EMC Surges in Storage
