Storage software vendors post positive growth

CALIFORNIA, USA: The worldwide storage software market experienced solid growth in the first quarter of 2010 (1Q10) with revenues of $3.0 billion, representing 7.2 percent growth over the same quarter one year ago, but a 1.6 percent decrease from the previous quarter (4Q09). This according to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker report.

Laura DuBois, program vice president, Storage Software, IDC, said: "The gains in the storage software market in the first quarter of the year were the result of overall growth from many of the leading vendors as well as the weak performance in 1Q09 due to economic conditions during that period."

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"However, market demand for storage solutions has clearly returned, with five of the top six vendors showing positive growth year-over-year. Another quarter of growth will be a strong indicator that the storage software market is in recovery."

Much of the overall growth came from the market's largest suppliers: EMC (up 13.7 percent), IBM (up 11.0 percent), HP (up 8.7 percent), NetApp (up 8.1 percent), and CA (up 7.2 percent).

Not to be overlooked, however, was the 25 percent year-over-year growth coming from CommVault's performance. Much of the overall growth was due to the release of storage spending following budget freezes in 2009.

Expenditures and projects that were postponed or cancelled in late 2008 and 2009 resulted in a backlog of projects that are starting to be switched on again. The storage software revenue growth of 7.2 percent is in line with worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues, which posted a year-over-year growth of 17.1 percent, totaling $5.0 billion, in the first quarter of 2010.

Data protection and recovery, the most material of all the storage software segments, was up 10.6 percent from a year ago. EMC, CommVault, IBM, and HP all enjoyed double digit year-over-year growth in this segment. EMC and CommVault had the strongest year-over-year growth with revenues up 46.6 percent and 24.9 percent respectively for data protection and recovery.