It's Scorecard Season In Storage Land

Every quarter, IDC and Gartner offer their views on who sold what where in the storage industry. 

If you're in this industry, you scrutinize the data like crazy, trying to figure out trends, relative positioning, etc.

And, of course, there's the endless set of spin-releases from PR departments.

So, let's take a look ... and no, this isn't me doing a round of chest-thumping for EMC.

Well, maybe just a little.

With Analysts, It's A Two Horse Race

Like presidential primaries, there's a certain value in announcing your analysis first -- as there is in being the first vendor to spin things.  I seem to remember that IDC used to come first, then Gartner, but this time around, it's Gartner.

The ground rules are pretty easy to understand.

Gartner measure who sold what, not who built what.  As an example, IBM gets credit for everything they sell on their paper (whether it came from NetApp, or LSI, or somewhere else).  EMC doesn't get credit for a big chunk of Dell's revenue, nor Fujitsu Siemens, nor any of our other branded OEMS.  So you have to do a bit of adjustment.

Also, just to make it fun, we don't tell Garter what we actually sold -- they have to figure it out from publicly available information.  So it's an estimate at best.  Usually it's a good one, but there's a limit to their methodology, and -- occasionally -- they can miss something big.

What Gartner Said

You can go read the press release here, or I've copied the text for your convenience:

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Gartner Says Worldwide External Controller-Based Disk Storage Market Grew 3.4 Percent in Third Quarter of 2007

STAMFORD, Conn., December 5, 2007 — Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage revenue totaled $3.9 billion in the third quarter of 2007, a 3.4 percent increase over the same period in 2006, according to Gartner, Inc.

EMC maintained the No. 1 spot overall, finishing the quarter at 25.8 percent market share (see Table 1). IBM was in second place with 14.6 percent of the market followed by Hewlett-Packard with 12.6 percent. Hitachi/HDS took back its fourth place spot with 9.7 percent market share. 

Dell dropped to the No. 5 spot with 8.7 percent share.  However, Dell showed the strongest growth year-over-year among the top-tier vendors, with 23.3 percent revenue growth for the quarter.

NetApp maintained its No. 6 spot with a market share of 7.3 percent. Sun Microsystems rounded out the top vendors, remaining in the No. 7 spot with 4.2 percent market share. The “Others” vendors increased their share of the market by 8.9 percent year-over-year, accounting for 17 percent of worldwide revenue in the third quarter.

The Asia/Pacific region increased its revenue by 22.7 percent year-over-year. The growth in AP is widely distributed amongst several countries, including India, Australia, Taiwan, and China.  “Distributed growth is a positive indication of vendors’ commitment in the region.  While each country is unique, vendors are better positioned to leverage existing relationships,” said Donna Taylor, principal analyst for Gartner’s global Storage Quarterly Statistics program.

Table 1
Worldwide External Controller-Based Disk Storage Vendor Revenue Estimates for 3Q07

(Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Company	3Q07 Revenue	3Q07 Market Share (%)	3Q06 Revenue	3Q06 Market Share (%)	3Q06-3Q07 Change (%)
EMC *	996.1	25.8	953.9	25.6	4.4
IBM	564.8	14.6	553.6	14.8	2.0
Hewlett-Packard	484.7	12.6	474.9	12.7	2.1
Hitachi/HDS **	372.5	9.7	402.7	10.8	-7.5
Dell	335.6	8.7	272.2	7.3	23.3
Network Appliance	281.6	7.3	272.2	7.3	3.4
Sun Microsystems	163.0	4.2	196.5	5.3	-17.1
Others	657.1	17.0	603.3	16.2	8.9
Total	3,855.2	100.0	3,729.4	100.0	3.4

Note* EMC revenue excludes OEM revenue from Dell and Fujitsu Siemens.

Note ** Hitachi/HDS revenue excludes OEM revenue from HP and Sun Microsystems.

Source: Gartner (December 2007)

Gartner external controller-based 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.

Additional information on the ECB disk storage market is available in the Gartner Dataquest report “Market Share: Disk Array Storage, All Regions, All Countries, 1Q05-3Q07." The report includes vendor market share by data access method, price band, channel and operating system segmentation. The report is available on Gartner’s Web site.

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So, What Do We See?

The first thing is that the market grew 3.4% year-over-year.  That's nice, but not a barn-burner compared to other areas of tech.

EMC is #1 -- this shouldn't be surprise, this has been the case for a very long time.   Sales of our branded  products grew a bit faster than the market.

But look at Dell -- a rockin' 23% y/y growth.  A sizable portion of that is EMC product.  Just how much, I can't say.  All of you Dell / EMC doomsayers, keep in mind, no one's walking away from that much revenue.

The other big winner here is "other".  Yes, that magical category called "other".  This is where you're seeing all the new entrants -- EqualLogic, Compellent, 3PAR, LeftHand, Pillar (sorry if I left anyone out here).  Collectively, they had more growth than anyone other than Dell.

Says a lot about the market that new players can do well, doesn't it?

The other interesting thing is that -- other than Dell, EMC and "other" -- everyone else is tracking the market, or losing a bit of market share.  Not big numbers, mind you, but interesting to see.

And Then There's APJ -- Asia Pacific and Japan

Even Gartner had to call out the stellar growth that's happening there -- we've seen it, and I bet other vendors are seeing it as well.  This market is on a tear.

What Happens Next?

If past history is any indication of future behavior, we'll see 3-6 press releases with various flavors of spin on this.  It's always fun to see how different vendors cut the data to make themselves look good.

Storage is a fun game -- especially when you keep score!