Storage vendors capitalize on their own software hype

Storage vendors have spent years trying to convince customers about the merits of storage resource management (SRM) software. And now it looks like the brainwashing is finally starting to product some dividends.

Research firm IDC noted a 17 percent rise in storage software revenue during the second quarter with vendors pulling in $1.9bn. The SRM market was the major driver for this growth, surging 30 percent year-over-year. The more traditional backup and archive segment grew just 9.2 percent, according to IDC. The replication and file system software markets grew as well, rising 13.5 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively.

What's pushing this SRM surge? Pure, unadulterated need.

"This dramatic growth, driven primarily by customer need to support larger and more complex storage networks, combined with a gradual decline in the more mature backup and archive software market, made storage resource management the largest of the storage software markets for the first time," IDC said.

After years of dealing with incompatible hardware and software from the major players in the storage market, customers have started to warm to interoperable gear. Storage vendors created a need for better code and then graciously solved this problem for their faithful users.

EMC continued to dominate the overall market for storage software. The vendor moved $602m worth of code in the second quarter - a 31 percent rise over the same period last year. Veritas maintained the second slot with 23 percent growth and sales of $418m.

IBM fell behind rivals with a 3 percent drop in sales to $130m. This figure tied HP, which enjoyed 9 percent growth. CA rounded out the top five vendors with $123m in sales but suffered a 13 percent revenue decline. CA customers may well have been waiting for the company's recent BrightStor refresh to take place. ®

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