Western European enterprise grade external disk storage systems (EDSS) market revenues declined 2.5% during the fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12) to $1.47bn, compared to the corresponding period in 2011, according to a new report.
International Data Corporation (IDC) EMEA Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker showed for all of 2012 spending declined 3% in dollar terms, while in euro terms, the market rose 1.3% for Q4 and 4.6% for overall 2012.
IDC's European Storage Group research director Donna Taylor said some of the quarterly results ran against the general perception and indices of some of the major economies in Western Europe.
"However, this is largely due to the cyclical nature of the enterprise storage market as well as the result of some key customers in stressed markets holding on to their budgets till the very end of the year," Taylor added.
During 2012, hard disk drive pricing and supply have continuously enhanced and in the last three months, as users purchased 1.5 exabytes of new enterprise system capacity, the report revealed.
Sales of high-end storage systems were driven by refreshes and consolidation projects in Q4, and EMC overtook most of the competition, followed by IBM and HP. While Hitachi Data Systems lost its share, it, however, reported growth for the full year.
During the quarter, demand for midrange systems declined, but it was led by NetApp's FAS and IBM's Storwize V7000, while Hitachi influenced its new midrange HUS platform to recover earlier lows.
HP lost the market share over falling EVA sales despite a strong deal during the year's end , while Dell also lost market share.
Sales shrank of EqualLogic and Compellent was not able to spur enough growth during Q4.
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