Gartner Says Worldwide FC SAN Market Grew 13 Percent in 2001

Worldwide Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) components revenue totaled $1.46 billion in 2001, a 13 percent increase from 2000 revenue of $1.3 billion, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner, Inc.

Gartner Dataquest analysts presented the findings today during the Gartner PlanetStorage 2002 conference at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“While the Fibre Channel industry experienced slower growth than in previous years, this increase is considered a strong performance in a difficult year for storage products and companies,” said James Opfer, chief analyst for Gartner Dataquest’s Storage Worldwide research group, focusing on server storage and RAID worldwide. “In addition to extraneous factors related to economic conditions that slowed growth in 2001, Fibre Channel products were undergoing a transition from 1-Gbps to 2-Gbps products that was not completed in 2001, particularly in the area of directors and other core products.”

Brocade continued to maintain the No.1 position in Fibre Channel component revenue, as its 2001 market share totaled 34 percent, up from 32 percent market share in 2000. McDATA moved up to the No.2 position with a 41 percent increase. QLogic showed the strongest growth in 2001, as its revenue increased 42 percent.

The worldwide Fibre Channel switching products market had revenue reach $829 million in 2001, up 26 percent from 2000. Brocade remained the dominant supplier, accounting for 58 percent of revenue. McDATA represented 29 percent of revenue. McDATA’s success was attributed to its edge-switch products that complemented its core director products. QLogic remained the No. 3 vendor with 7 percent of the market, as it completed the transition associated with its acquisition of Ancor the previous year.

Worldwide Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) totaled $562 million in 2001, an increase of 3 percent from 2000. Emulex was the clear leader with 40 percent of the market, followed by QLogic with 22 percent market share. JNI was the No. 3 vendor with 13 percent of the market’s revenue.

The worldwide Fibre Channel market will continue to experience double-digit growth through 2006, when the market will total $6.7 billion. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for Fibre Channel revenue is projected to be 36 percent from 2001-2006. HBAs and switching products will exhibit CAGRs differing by only a few percentage points from the composite value.