The worldwide data storage software market is continuing
to enjoy double-digit growth, with replication systems seeing the
biggest recent sales increase.
Analyst IDC said storage software sales in 2005 reached $8.9bn
(£5bn), representing growth of 12.6% on the previous year.
In the fourth quarter of 2005, the storage replication market
posted the largest gain of 21.7% year-on-year.
The back-up/archive and storage resource management software
markets continued to represent the largest storage software
markets, said IDC. They each represented a third of the market.
"The storage software market continues to exhibit steady growth,
particularly in the replication and backup and archive segments,
driven by customer requirements of trying to protect and secure
information in an increasingly complex IT environment," said IDC
analyst Rhoda Phillips.
EMC had the biggest sales share of the market in the fourth
quarter, with 29.2%. Symantec, bulked up following its acquisition
of Veritas, was number two with 19.7%.
In third place was IBM, with an 11.5% share. Network Appliance
and HP made up the top five.