Disk was king in the third quarter with storage sales surging a record 13.3 per cent, according to market researcher IDC.

The storage vendors pulled in $5.7bn in the period. IDC noted that this was the highest growth rate since it started keeping track of the storage sector in 2001. Total petabytes increased 58 per cent year-over-year to 505 petabytes or half an exabyte.

"This is the third consecutive quarter that disk storage systems revenue growth has outpaced that of the server market," said Brad Nisbet, an analyst at IDC.

In the external disk market, EMC remained the top dog with $786m in sales and 20 per cent share. HP, however, is catching up after posting a strong quarter and shipped $740m in systems to leave it with 19 per cent of the market. IBM, Dell and Hitachi rounded out the top five.

In all worldwide disk sales combined, HP took the top spot, selling $1.3bn worth of gear and eating 24 per cent of the market. IBM finished second with $1.2bn in sales and 21 per cent share, while EMC placed third with $786m in sales and 14 per cent share. Dell and Hitachi rounded out the top five. ®