|
Tape a viable storage medium for years to come: IDC
25 May, 2005
by Liam Lahey
Hewlett-Packard and IBM Corp. continue to dominate the worldwide
branded tape market for the 2004 calendar year, according
to a new IDC Corp. report on the marketplace and the top vendors
driving it.
In the branded tape drive marketplace, HP holds 29 per cent
of all tape drive volume shipped worldwide and 29 per cent
of revenue for 2004. IBM holds 17 per cent of the worldwide
volume, but actually leads HP in revenue with a 33 per cent
share. Other key suppliers include Dell (with 15 per cent
volume shipped and 10 per cent revenue) and Certance (recently
acquired by Quantum) with 11 per cent volume shipped and five
per cent revenue share.
Those figures don't waver too much from IDC's 2003 tally,
which saw HP and IBM lead the market with HP garnering 26
per cent volume shipped and 30.3 per cent revenue and Big
Blue claiming 14 per cent volume shipped and 31 per cent revenue.
"Suppliers in the worldwide tape market have become
increasingly reliant on top-tier server and system customers
as a route to market," said Robert Amatruda, research
manager, tape and removable storage at Framingham, Mass.-based
IDC. "Tape storage products will continue to be an important
component of the overall server and storage infrastructure."
Meanwhile, in the branded tape automation marketplace, HP
shipped the most midrange libraries worldwide, with 26 per
cent of the volume. IBM and HP were statistically tied for
first place with respect to revenue, each at 23 per cent of
total revenue for 2004. However, IBM only shipped 22 per cent
of the volume in this category. Other key suppliers in the
midrange category include StorageTek and ADIC.
The study, entitled "Worldwide Branded Tape 1Q04-4Q04
Vendor Analysis," was authored by Amatruda, who added,
"This is not a market with wild swings."
He said despite the efforts of some to erase the tape market
with other technologies, customers rely on and prefer tape-based
storage to augment other systems such as disk-based or hosted
storage options.
"The message here is tape is alive and well in terms
of its viability as a technology," he said. "It's
a stable underpinning to the market. Many are aiming to replace
tape but the sheer volume (of data) and the value (of tape)
to the marketplace is such that it runs contrary to what people
are talking about.
"Tape will remain a viable storage medium for years
to come."
|
