EMC widens lead as number one

EMC Corporation extended its number one market share lead in storage management software in 2000, according to a new report from Gartner Dataquest, growing nearly six points to 25.5% in 2000. EMC outpaced the next closest software competitor by more than nine percentage points in the $5.3 billion worldwide storage management software market, which grew 28% in 2000.

In announcing its first-quarter earnings today, EMC reported industry-leading 73% revenue growth in information storage software for the first quarter of 2001. This rapid growth is expected to further increase EMC`s market share lead in this strategic segment. Also during the first quarter, International Data Corporation (IDC) reported that EMC extended its market share lead in storage systems during 2000, gaining more share than any other supplier in every major segment of the worldwide information storage systems market.

In her report, Carolyn DiCenzo, Chief Analyst for Gartner Dataquest`s storage group, praised EMC`s foresight in developing advanced software functionality during the early 1990s. DiCenzo said, "Some vendors, however, don`t understand how to leverage their software effectively. EMC got it right early on and didn`t have to try to recover from the `giveaway` strategy plaguing some of the other vendors."

Joe Tucci, EMC President and CEO, said, "Customers that build their business around information know that information delivers value only when it can be widely accessed, delivered, re-purposed, shared and managed in a unified way. EMC E-Infostructure makes this possible through an unmatched depth of software functionality, placing software intelligence closest to that which it controls across storage, network and server environments."

As the worldwide leader in storage software with a focus on high growth segments, EMC introduced more new software products and enhancements over the past year than in all of its history. EMC invests more in storage R&D than any other company, 75% of which is dedicated to new software and enhancing existing EMC software platforms such as ControlCenter, PowerPath, SRDF, TimeFinder, Navisphere and Access Logix that enable customers to scale and generate exponential value from their infrastructures.

The Gartner Dataquest report concurs with a number of recent studies that have found explosive growth rates in information and an increasingly strategic role for intelligent storage software. The University of California, Berkeley, recently reported that the amount of new information being generated is expected to double annually - with more original information created in the next two years (2001-02) than all the information accumulated in the entire history of mankind.