DISK/TREND NEWS

Disk drive arrays

Enterprise storage is a changing landscape, but
RAID sales continue up, topping $14 billion in 1999

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., November 3, 1999 -- The market for disk drive arrays is continuing the rapid growth pattern established throughout the 1990's, but some segments of the array market are clearly more prosperous than others. Shipments of disk drive arrays, which are popularly known as RAID ("Redundant Array of Independent Disks"), are dominated by the broad open systems market, which produced 73.3% of the industry's 1998 sales revenues, according to the new DISK/TREND report on disk drive arrays.

1.3 million of the network/midrange arrays were shipped in 1998, with 2002 shipments forecasted to reach almost 2.2 million arrays, growing to 87.4% of the overall array sales revenue total for 2002. Traditional mainframe disk drive arrays are not expected to do nearly as well, with the share for mainframe array sales revenues declining from 25.6% in 1998 to 12.0% in 2002, at $2.3 billion.

The worldwide market for all types of disk drive arrays topped $12.5 billion in 1998, and 1999's total is expected to be well over $14 billion. By 2002 sales revenues are projected to reach $19.8 billion, an average annual increase for the 1999-2002 period of 12.1%.

Here are other highlights from the 1999 DISK/TREND Report on disk drive arrays:

Disk drive arrays are sold in several product forms, including complete subsystems with disk drives, individual array controller boards, and software array products. Sales of complete array subsystems, at relatively high prices, generated 94.5% of the overall 1998 total array sales revenue, but only 41.3% of total unit shipments. Array controller boards, used by system manufacturers, integrators and do-it-yourselfers to assemble complete array subsystems, claimed 49.2% of the 1998 array total, but are destined to gradually decline as some arrays designed for personal computer applications start to use array chip sets mounted on system motherboards. Software array products held 9.6% of the 1998 total, mostly in RAID-1, or mirrored disk, applications.
As the price per megabyte for high-end disk drives decreases rapidly, there is a major impact on sales revenues for mainframe computer disk drive arrays, which tend to use a large number of drives. 1998 sales revenues for mainframe system arrays were $3.2 billion, but the impact of drive pricing, combined with a gradual decline in mainframe array shipments, will lower the 2002 sales revenue total to $2.4 billion.
The DISK/TREND worldwide list of manufacturers which make RAID controller boards, software products, or assemble complete subsystems peaked in 1995 with 179 companies, and has declined to 115 in 1999. The disk drive array business is growing at an impressive rate, but the rapidly changing, competitive environment is tough on manufacturers which do not secure a significant market share. The 1998 worldwide array sales revenue leaders have remained the same for several years, including IBM, Compaq Computer and EMC. 91.6% of the worldwide array sales revenue total was produced by companies headquartered in the United States, and 72.2% of the array manufacturers are U.S. companies.

In addition to individual revenue and unit shipment projections for disk drive arrays in four separate product groups, the DISK/TREND Report provides a review of array system considerations, a checklist on array selection for prospective buyers, competitive market shares of manufacturers, and a review of competing data storage technologies. The report also contains basic product specifications on 672 disk drive array models and profiles of 141 existing and former manufacturers of disk drive arrays.

The new study on disk drive arrays was released as part of the series of three 1999 DISK/TREND Reports, detailed annual business reviews of the worldwide disk drive industry. Separate reports on rigid disk drives were published in June, and on optical and removable disk drives in July.

The 1999 DISK/TREND Report on disk drive arrays is priced at $2,325. Subscriptions for the complete 1999 DISK/TREND Report, including reports on all three product areas, are now available at $6,240 by contacting Jim Porter, 2030 West Middlefield Road #1, Mountain View, CA 94043, or through the Web site, www.disktrend.com.

       
                                     DISK DRIVE ARRAYS
                                         
                           WORLDWIDE SALES REVENUES ($MILLION)
       
       
                                         ---------------Forecast----------------                             
                              1998
                            Revenues     1999       2000       2001       2002  
       
       Single user 
       systems                  38.4       46.1       53.3       54.9       54.4
       
       Networks/midrange
       systems               9,210.4   11,333.7   13,670.8   15,792.5   17,331.2
       
       Mainframe 
       systems               3,221.0    3,013.3    2,891.8    2,639.0    2,375.0
       
       Specialized high 
       performance systems     106.8       89.1       87.5       85.8       83.7
                            ________   ________   ________   ________   ________
       
       TOTAL, 
       ALL ARRAYS           12,576.6   14,482.2   16,703.4   18,572.2   19,844.3
       
       
       Source:  1999 DISK/TREND Report

To see the report contents:

To order the complete report:

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DISK/TREND NEWS

Disk drive arrays

Enterprise storage is a changing landscape, but RAID sales continue up, topping $14 billion in 1999

Enterprise storage is a changing landscape, but
RAID sales continue up, topping $14 billion in 1999