Worldwide storage software sales reach £7.7bn in 2010

Global sales of storage software increased to £7.7bn last year after five consecutive quarters of growth, according to new figures from IDC.

Sales grew by around 10 per cent, representing a "striking contrast" against the 3.2 per cent fall in the same period last year, the research firm said.

IDC's Worldwide Storage Software QView reported that much of the growth was down to increased enterprise investment in storage, as well as a desire to protect and secure data.

"The storage software market is in the midst of a sustained recovery, partly driven by new product innovations, and partly by a strong desire to address inefficiencies related to storing, protecting and managing corporate data," said Eric Sheppard, research director with IDC's Storage Software programme.

"A considerable increase in storage software designed to enable automated storage tiering, coupled with a continued market trend of addressing ageing, inefficient storage deployments, were two important drivers of growth during the quarter."

EMC took the largest chunk of the market in the fourth quarter, improving revenues by 18 per cent to £530m. Symantec was in second place with £332m, representing much less impressive growth of 0.01 per cent.

IBM followed in third place with 13 per cent of the market. This translated into £271m in revenues and a 13 per cent increase against the same time last year. NetApp came fourth with £190m in revenues and nine per cent growth.

IDC reported that the storage infrastructure market saw the highest rate of growth, increasing by 23.6 per cent to £730m for the full year.

Data protection and recovery was worth the most, however, and IDC reported revenues of £2.7bn for the year.