Total worldwide enterprise storage systems factory revenue declined 2.2% year over year to $10.4 billion during the fourth quarter of 2015 (4Q15), according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker. Total capacity shipments were up 10.7% (year over year) to 35.5 exabytes during the quarter. Revenue growth declined within the group of original design manufacturers (ODMs) that sell directly to hyperscale datacenters. This portion of the market was down 14.4% year over year to $1.2 billion. Sales of server-based storage were up 6.1% during the quarter and accounted for $2.2 billion in revenue. External storage systems remained the largest market segment, but the $7.0 billion in sales represented a 2.3% year-over-year decline.
“The enterprise storage market closed out 2015 on a slight downturn, as spending on traditional external arrays continues to decline,” said Liz Conner, Research Manager, Storage Systems. “Over the past year, end user focus has shifted towards server-based storage, software-defined storage, and cloud-based storage. As a result, traditional enterprise storage vendors are forced to revamp and update their product portfolios to meet these shifting demands.”
4Q15 Total Enterprise Storage Systems Market Results
EMC finished in the top position within the total worldwide enterprise storage systems market, capturing 21.5% of all revenue. HPE was the number 2 vendor with 15.1% share of revenue during the quarter while Dell and IBM finished tied* for the number 3 position with worldwide shares of 8.9% and 8.6% respectively. As a group, storage systems sales by ODMs selling directly to hyper-scale datacenter customers accounted for 11.2% of global spending during the quarter.
| Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Total Enterprise Storage Systems Market, Fourth Quarter of 2015 (Revenues are in Millions) | |||||
| Vendor | 4Q15 Revenue | 4Q15 Market Share | 4Q14 Revenue | 4Q14 Market Share | 4Q15/4Q14 Revenue Growth |
| 1. EMC | $2,229.0 | 21.5% | $2,351.5 | 22.2% | -5.2% |
| 2. HPE | $1,572.0 | 15.1% | $1,456.2 | 13.7% | 7.9% |
| 3. Dell* | $920.7 | 8.9% | $951.9 | 9.0% | -3.3% |
| 3. IBM* | $892.9 | 8.6% | $939.6 | 8.9% | -5.0% |
| 5. NetApp | $650.9 | 6.3% | $763.6 | 7.2% | -14.8% |
| ODM Direct | $1,161.2 | 11.2% | $1,356.8 | 12.8% | -14.4% |
| Others | $2,951.5 | 28.4% | $2,796.7 | 26.3% | 5.5% |
| All Vendors | $10,378.1 | 100.0% | $10,616.3 | 100.0% | -2.2% |
| Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, March 11, 2016 | |||||
