Increased use of enterprise storage systems: Industry leaders and key benefits

Companies today deal with an increasing amount of content. From big data, the analysis of that information, project details and other concepts, this content forms the lifeblood for many critical business processes. But what do enterprises do with this information when they aren’t using it?

A recent IDC study showed that the use of enterprise storage systems is up, spurring financial growth for companies in that industry. As organizations increase the amount of data they store and utilize on a daily basis, the sector is expanding its market share and the users of this technology are reaping the benefits.

IDC study: Global enterprise storage systems
The IDC study, published in early March 2015, found that the global market for enterprise storage systems has seen a 7.2 percent increase in revenue year over year. This allowed the industry to reach a $10.6 billion value in the fourth quarter of 2014. During that time, total capacity shipments rose by 43.7 percent year over year, reaching 31.8 exabytes in the final months of the year.

Overall spending from the enterprise sector on these storage systems also increased, growing 3.6 percent to reach $36.2 billion. In addition, full year capacity rose 43 percent, hitting 99.2 exabytes by the end of the quarter.

IDC research director Eric Sheppard noted that much of this growth was “driven by traditional year-end seasonality, demand for mid-range systems that incorporate flash capacity, and continued growth of systems designed for hyperscale data centers.”

EMC: A clear industry leader
IDC’s report also highlighted some of the industry leaders seeing the most growth. At the top of that list was EMC, known for its flash storage offerings. The company saw the bulk of spending taking place during the fourth quarter last year, with 22.2 percent of the market. Just behind EMC was HP, with 13.8 percent of spending.

EMC was also the largest external storage systems supplier during that quarter. The company garnered 32.9 percent of all sales, the same as 2013. IBM generated 11.7 percent of total sales, and HP saw 9.6 percent.

In addition, EMC was the top company in the total open networked storage market, with a 35.7 percent share. In this category, IBM attained 11.1 percent of the market.

A robust storage solution is key for data management.

Why use enterprise storage systems?
There are a number of advantages to enterprise storage systems that go beyond simply housing and organizing information. These include:

• Security: Enterprise storage providers not only archive the information of one company, but that of all their clients as well. For this reason, these service providers have the most robust security possible to ensure that their business clients’ information is only accessible to their employees.
• Ability to eliminate in-house systems: These days, more technology is moving off-premises, freeing up internal IT teams to focus on other mission-critical tasks. Instead of deploying, updating and maintaining their own servers, companies have found that it is much more convenient to let a provider of enterprise storage technology take care of these responsibilities for them.
• Expert support staff: Enterprise storage is also beneficial for companies that don’t have internal IT teams. Service providers have a staff of experts on hand to maintain equipment, so businesses can rest easy knowing their storage infrastructure is in capable hands.
• Scalability: Another benefit of enterprise storage systems is their flexibility. These solutions can be scaled up or down depending on the company’s need. In this way, should the business have an influx of big data to archive, or if they acquire another firm and need to house their information alongside their own, the storage system can grow to accommodate these needs.

To find out more about data management, contact iT1 Source today.