Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage vendor revenue totaled $5.3 billion in the third quarter of 2012, a 3.6 percent increase from revenue of $5.1 billion in the third quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. The third quarter of 2012 was the 12th consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth.
"Reflecting the weak global macro economy, revenue growth in the third quarter of 2012 was the lowest annual growth rate over the past seven quarters, down 3.1 percentage points and 4.4 percentage points respectively from the second quarter 2012 and first quarter 2012 growth rates" said Roger Cox, research vice president at Gartner.
While not as robust as in the past, the network-attached storage (NAS) segment grew 10.9 percent. The block-access segment composed of storage area network (SAN) and direct-attached storage (DAS) increased only 1.6 percent in third quarter 2012. The block-access SAN/DAS market segment represented 76.2 percent of the total ECB disk storage market in the third quarter of 2012. The NAS segment gained 1.5 points of share to represent 23.1 percent of the total ECB disk storage market in the third quarter of 2012.
Four vendors — Hitachi/Hitachi Data Systems, Fujitsu, EMC and NetApp — outgrew the market in the third quarter of 2012 (see Table 1). Hitachi/Hitachi Data Systems' high-end VSP offering exhibited particular strength, while its midrange platforms achieved positive year-over-year growth for the first time in 2012. Fujitsu continued to emphasize its high-end and midrange Eternus brand storage platforms, gaining share in Europe, as well as in Japan. Even in a down market, EMC's broad ECB disk storage portfolio enabled it to realize the greatest year-over-year market share gain. Recovering from a poor performance in the second quarter of 2012, NetApp showed signs of regaining its footing as market traction for its Cluster-Mode Data ONTAP and FlexPod offerings increased.
