MUMBAI, INDIA: Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage revenue totaled more than $3.9 billion in the third quarter of 2009, a 7.3 percent decline from the same period in 2008, according to Gartner Inc.

Donna Taylor, principal research analyst, Gartner, Global Storage Quarterly Statistics program, said: “The year-over-year decline of 7.3 percent 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.”

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EMC maintained its No. 1 position with 26.7 percent revenue market share (see Table 1). 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 percent. Hitachi, Dell and NetApp ranked fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, by the narrowest of margins. Hitachi achieved an 8.8 percent market share, while Dell and NetApp each achieved 8.6 percent. Dell and NetApp’s revenue was separated by only $2 million. Sun Microsystems placed seventh with 3.6 percent market share.

The Indian ECB market dropped a significant 20 percent on a year on year basis, contrary to global trends and totaled $ 43 million in July August September, 2009. IBM, EMC and Sun Microsystems continued to be the top three vendors and together accounted for 61 percent share of all ECB revenues in India in the last quarter.

“The tide will change soon” says Aman Munglani, Principal analyst Gartner. “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.

Table 1
Worldwide ECB Disk Storage Vendor Revenue Estimates for 3Q09

*Please note that beginning in 4Q08, Gartner added new vendor coverage in the Others category, as well as enhanced “white box” estimates. Therefore, revenue estimates for the others category will tend to distort market shares among all categories until FY09, when an apples-to-apples comparison will be possible. As a result, Gartner suggests that readers focus instead on the individual “named” vendors’ year-over-year revenue percentage change.

Gartner ECB disk storage reports reflect hardware-only revenue, as well as hardware revenue associated with financial leases and managed services. Optional storage software revenue and storage area network infrastructure components are excluded.