European storage market to touch $10 billion, IDC

According to IDC, the European storage services market is set to reach $10.05 billion by the end of 2005, which represents a compound annual growth rate of just over 8 percent. Overall market growth may seem slow but takes into account the worldwide economic situation as well as the impact of recent events on IT spending. Higher-value services such as consulting and outsourcing are forecast to grow over 10 percent a year.

Over the past two years, storage has established itself as one of the most talked about segments of the infrastructure services arena alongside security services. “Storage has now become strategic,” said Lionel Lamy, research manager for IDC’s European Infrastructure Management Services. “Companies increasingly rely on access to information to conduct everyday operations, and storing information in the most reliable, secure and easily accessible way is becoming crucial. Value for money or cost effectiveness is only adding to the complexity of the equation.”

IDC predicts the storage utility market will consolidate in the next five years and will be dominated by larger companies. The main element today is support, but by 2005 storage management and outsourcing will be more prevalent.

“Beyond simple cost control, IT managers are required to maximise the return on investment of previous storage hardware purchases,” continued Lamy. “Many companies made the mistake of throwing money at their storage problem for example, buying more storage hardware. Now that economic conditions are more trying, companies need to maximise the use and effectiveness of previous storage investment. This is pushing the development of storage software as well as services forward.”