IDC: Storage Software Booms in ’05

Thanks to continued high demand in back-up, management and replication technologies, storage software revenues grew 12.6 percent, totaling $8.9 billion in 2005.

These segments were responsible for pumping almost $1 billion of revenue into the market, according to IDC’s latest storage software report.

For the full year, EMC led with 29.7 percent revenue share, followed by Symantec with 20.3 percent and IBM with 10.5 percent. Network Appliance and HP rounded out the top five with 6.6 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively.

The fourth quarter was something of a microcosm of the results for 2005, as the market grew 11.2 percent year-over-year to $2.4 billion in Q4.

For Q4, EMC led the market with a 29.2 percent revenue share. Thanks to its Veritas purchase, Symantec took the second position, with 19.7 percent.

IBM was third in Q4. While Big Blue only notched an 11.5 percent share, the company recorded a 32.6 percent year-over-year growth.

NetApp and HP rounded the top five, with 6.7 percent and 6.5 percent revenue share, respectively.

NetApp also posted the strongest growth among the top five vendors, with 45.4 percent for the year and 41.3 percent for Q4, respectively.

Back-up, archive and storage resource management segments each grabbed about a third of the market.

Storage replication, in which stored or archived data is copied in real time as it moves across a storage area network (SAN) (define), grew 21.7 percent for Q4 from a year ago.

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