Storage has a new role in many organizations.No longer is it thought of as a tactical, add-on technology. It has gained importance and is now often considered a critical strategic issue. As a result of its increased prominence, storage is creating lucrative opportunities for vendors that provide storage services, including consulting, integration, management, and support. IDC forecasts worldwide storage services spending will exceed $40 billion in 2003. In 1999, it was a bit more than $21 billion.
"As IT implementations have become more distributed and dispersed within organizations often across regional boundaries IT managers have become less in touch with their organizations` storage needs," said Doug Chandler, program manager for IDC`s System Support Services research. "Their unfamiliarity, combined with the increasing strategic importance of storage, is propelling demand for outside providers of storage services."
According to IDC, Internet-based applications such as ecommerce and customer relationship management are contributing to storage`s elevating role because they require quick access to large amounts of data.
In the United States, IBM is benefiting the most from the provision of storage services. It was the top storage services U.S. vendor with an estimated $3.6 billion of the market`s revenues in 1999. Hewlett-Packard placed second with 1999 revenues of $1 billion.
Storage consulting will be the fastest-growing services category through 2003, increasing at a 1999-2003 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.6%, compared with the overall market`s CAGR of 19%. Storage management or outsourcing will be a close second with a CAGR of 31.8%. Storage support services, however, will remain the largest segment of the market through 2003, according to IDC.
The storage area network and the storage utility segments will be particularly hot throughout IDC`s forecast. "Along with the increasingly strategic importance of storage in general, the advent of storage area networks (SANs) is a key driver behind the growth in the storage services market today," Chandler said. "At the same time, the storage utility or storage-on-demand model could potentially transform the business of delivering storage capacity and associated services."
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International Data Corporation (IDC)
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BMI-TechKnowledge Group (BMI-T)
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