STORAGE

Driven by strong sales in storage resource management, worldwide storage management software revenue increased 12.3 percent in 2004, according to Gartner. The storage management software market totaled $5.6 billion in new license revenue, up from $5 billion in 2003. The storage resource management (SRM) segment grew 30.8 percent to reach $612 million in 2004. This segment includes products that monitor and manage the capacity and performance across multiple storage and server platforms. "Storage resource management was the second smallest segment in 2004, but it is expected to continue to record fast growth as enterprises look to better manage storage capacity utilization and begin to automate some of the management functions," said Carolyn DiCenzo, research vice president at Gartner. "For some companies, the need to manage IT as a utility with service-level agreements between IT and the business units is also driving new requirements and increased interest in SRM." EMC, Veritas, IBM, and Computer Associates remained the top four vendors based on new license storage software revenue in 2004. Network Appliance showed the strongest growth of the top ten vendors, as it moved from the No. 7 position in 2003 to No. 5 in 2004 (see Table 1). Table 1 2004 Storage Software Market Leaders -- All Software, All Platforms, New License Revenue Only Vendor 2003 2003 Market 2004 2004 Market 2003-2004 Revenue Share (%) Revenue Share (%) Change (%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EMC 1,370.6 27.4 1,661.1 29.5 21.2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Veritas 929.3 18.6 1,038.1 18.5 11.7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IBM 616.0 12.3 688.1 12.2 11.7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Associates 327.8 6.5 296.7 5.3 -9.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Network Appliance 169.0 3.4 293.2 5.2 73.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hewlett-Packard 279.4 5.6 271.5 4.8 -2.8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hitachi/HDS 234.8 4.7 256.2 4.5 9.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- StorageTek 114.4 2.3 104.5 1.9 -8.7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Symantec 98.4 2.0 88.9 1.6 -9.7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BMC Software 78.6 1.6 84.2 1.5 7.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Others 789.5 15.6 842.9 15.0 6.8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 5,007.8 100.0 5,625.4 100.0 12.3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Gartner (April 2005) The worldwide storage management software market is poised for double-digit growth in 2005, with worldwide new license revenue projected to reach $6.3 billion, a 12 percent increase from 2004. Compliance requirements will drive archiving and data protection growth. Gartner analysts said vendors will try to leverage the focus on compliance by claiming that their products are compliance solutions. "The need to better incorporate electronic records into a total records management solution will offer real opportunity for storage vendors, but customers will need to look beyond the hype to determine exactly how a specific storage product will fit into their process," Ms. DiCenzo said. "Storage vendors will play a significant part in providing some of the tools needed to do Information Life Cycle Management (ILM) but understanding the content will be a key component that will take more than just storage tools." Additional information on the industry is available in the Gartner reports "2004 Storage Management Software Market Share" and "Storage Management Software Forecasts: 2005-2009." The reports provide detailed market share statistics, as well as the long-term outlook for the industry. The reports are available on Gartner's Web site at www.gartner.com. Gartner analysts will examine the state of the storage industry during the 21st annual Gartner PlanetStorage Summit, June 13-16 at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Florida. Gartner analysts will provide comprehensive coverage of the entire storage spectrum including: storage resource management; storage infrastructure design and cost justification; security and disaster recovery; storage technology road maps; and emerging disk storage architectures. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/us/storage. Members of the media can register for the PlanetStorage Summit by contacting Wanda Whitson at 408-468-8312 or wanda.whitson@gartner.com.