The worldwide storage software market grew 10%
year-on-year to be worth $2.1bn (£1.24bn) in the third quarter of
2005.
The figure was reported by analyst IDC, who said the increase
represented eight consecutive quarters of double-digit growth.
IDC said the biggest market area growth was in data storage
replication, which saw 16.8% year-on-year growth. The data back-up
and archiving markets grew 12.7%.
The analyst said greater demand for data protection, data
recovery and retrieval, increased use of remote working and the
need to comply with regulatory rules was driving storage software
growth.
IDC predicted that strong growth would continue not only in
enterprises’ main data centres, but also in remote and branch
offices.
IDC’s figures showed EMC still led the overall market in the
third quarter, with $621m (£365m) in sales, and a 29.1% market
revenue share.
Symantec, which recently acquired data back-up giant Veritas,
was in second position, with sales of $427m, and a 20% sales share.
IBM was third with sales of $201m and a 9.4% share.
Network Appliance and HP made up the remainder of the top
five.