IDC’s second quarter 2006 Worldwide Quarterly Disk System Tracker report reflects continued revenue growth worldwide in overall external disk storage systems for IBM with IBM outpacing EMC in year-to-year revenue growth rate for the fifth consecutive quarter [1]. The results also mark the sixth consecutive quarter of revenue growth for IBM in external disk storage systems, as tracked by IDC.
Based on IDC’s worldwide second quarter disk storage systems tracker results, IBM’s continued growth in external disk was highlighted by strong gains in Latin America, with a 32% year-over-year gain, exceeding the overall Latin America growth rate of 23%. IBM was the number one vendor of external disk storage in Latin America during the second quarter with a 26.1% share compared to 21.8% for the No. 2 vendor, HP. IDC also reported strong growth for IBM in EMEA.

“IBM continues to expand its presence in storage and once again grew at a faster rate than EMC by delivering leading-edge storage solutions that help our customers address their information on demand needs,” said Barry Rudolph, vice president, System Storage. “IBM just announced one of the single largest expansions of its storage portfolio, including the introduction of the IBM System Storage DS8000 Turbo, the System Storage N7000 line, as well as a new version of its industry leading storage virtualization software, which is great news for customers, and bad news for the competition.”

In August, IBM completed a comprehensive and sweeping expansion of its storage portfolio with the introduction of new and faster systems, enhanced products across its storage line, and new offerings from its OEM relationship with Network Appliance that collectively address the information-on-demand needs of businesses, large and small.
They include the introduction of IBM System Storage DS8000 Turbo, providing lower cost and faster performance than previous models; the introduction of the IBM System Storage N7000 line, high-end enterprise solutions that are designed to enable customers to consolidate large amounts of IP attached storage under one single point of management; the IBM System Storage DR550 V3.0 and DR550, which are designed for long-term data retention, including retention driven by regulation or corporate governance requirements; and the introduction of the IBM System Storage DS4200 Express Model, a powerful and affordable storage server that is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses. Earlier this year, IBM also introduced the latest version of its leading storage virtualization software, IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller, 4.1 (SVC).