The Canadian storage market grew 31 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2002, according to a recent report by Framingham Mass.-based analyst firm IDC.
The open storage area network (SAN) sector expanded 43 per cent while the network attached storage arena grew 34 per cent, the research firm said.
Hoang Nguyen, program manager at IDC in Framingham, Mass., said two clear leaders emerged in the Canadian market in 2002 – Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp., which together own more than half of the market.
While the numbers for the entire year weren’t readily available, in the fourth quarter alone IBM grew 27 per cent, garnering a total of 65 per cent market share.
HP grew 33 per cent with a total of 26 per cent of the fourth quarter’s revenue, and was beat out for second place by EMC Corp., which grew 99 per cent and had 37 per cent market share that quarter.
Globally, heavyweights IBM and HP went head-to-head in the fourth quarter of 2002 to see who would be crowned king of the quarter. Yet no clear winner emerged, according the report, which declared a draw between the two gear-makers.
Both garnered 25 per cent of the global storage market share in the fourth quarter. However, IBM shows the most marked improvement from the third quarter to the fourth, growing 34 per cent while HP grew only six per cent.
Globally, the entire storage market fared better in 2002 than initially expected – the sector declined only 15 per cent last year compared to the expected 21 per cent. In the fourth quarter alone, revenue increased 12 per cent up to US$5.4 billion.
IDC likened the performance of the storage market to the server market.
Still, HP got the gold medal for the entire year because of its Compaq holdings, edging out IBM with its 21 per cent market share compared to IBM’s 20 per cent. EMC followed with 12 per cent, and while Dell Computer Corp. only grabbed five per cent, its market share grew substantially at 13 per cent, second only in growth to IBM at 15 per cent.
As for the rest of the fourth quarter, EMC finished third with 11 per cent revenue share. Sun Microsystems Inc., Dell and Hitachi Ltd. tied for fourth place with about five per cent each. Sun, however, posted the strongest growth of those three at 17 per cent.
The open SAN arena outdid the rest of the market boasting a growth of 14 per cent in the fourth quarter with HP and EMC leading the pack at 28 and 26 per cent respectively.
In comparison, network attached storage (NAS) grew four per cent with Network Appliance Inc. coming out on top with 36 per cent with EMC on its heels at 33 per cent.
