Corporate storage needs will grow by 50 per cent in the next year, with storage for Windows NT being a critical issue, according to research firm Macarthur Stroud International. The main drivers of the market are email and messaging, data sharing, ERP and imaging finance. The survey was carried out among 450 medium to large European companies. The report found that people are starting to regard storage as a separate buying issue. According to Hamish Macarthur, this has increased competition within the market. The report concludes that data sharing is set to increase annually at 40 per cent through to 2000, and that respondents regarded 50 per cent of data as 'mission critical'. IBM is regarded by customers as the major vendor in the storage systems market. IBM's position as the major player in the market was attributed to the sheer scale of the company. "While IBM may not have the biggest market share, it is the most known name in the market," said Andreas Gallmeister, IBM storage marketing manager. He went on to say that IBM's cross platform approach has put it ahead of other competitors who may only cover one or two market segments.®