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STORAGE
Flash is the only bright spot for
EMEA external storage, according
to IDC
The traditional hard disk array (HDD)
segment in EMEA declined for yet another
quarter, falling 23 per cent in user value,
according to the latest EMEA Quarterly
Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker
published by IDC.
The flash market, on the other hand, recorded
another bumper quarter, with all-flash systems
growing 96 per cent annually and hybrid flash
arrays growing at a more modest four per cent
year on year. Bucking the overall trend of a
decline in capacity shipped, flash arrays recorded
triple-digit growth in capacity this quarter,
accounting for nearly 60 per cent of total
shipments.
"Flash is the only vivid note in yet another
lacklustre quarter characterised by unstable
emerging markets and a negative seasonality
effect," said Silvia Cosso, Senior Research
Analyst, European Storage Research, IDC.
Total EMEA external storage systems revenue
fell 4.9 per cent year over year in the first quarter
of 2016, the capacity shipped in the quarter also
dropped 3.5 per cent, trends that according to
IDC indicate a move away from external storage
to internal storage in the region.
“External storage continued to decline in
2016 in Western Europe as traditional storage
arrays struggle to attract investment," said
Archana Venkatraman, Senior Analyst, European
Storage Research, IDC. "The double-digit drop
in capacity in 1Q16 demonstrates how mature
Western European organisations are moving
to newer, more intuitive storage technologies
such as internal or server-based storage to meet
their capacity requirements. In the next few
quarters we expect to see continued growth in
flash storage and a push to internal storage as
organisations take an integrated approach to
their infrastructure to take it closer to application
needs."
The latest WW Quarterly Cloud
Infrastructure Tracker published
by IDC shows that EMEA public
and private cloud IT infrastructure
spending (server, disk storage and
Ethernet switch) has grown 17.6 per
cent in the first quarter of 2016.
The tracker is designed to provide a
better understanding of what portion
of the server, enterprise storage systems
and networking hardware markets are
being deployed in cloud environments.
Importantly, IDC points to the fact that the
tracker does not include an assessment of
the impact of the UK leaving the EU.
"Our forecast for the UK may be
adjusted downward in the following
quarter as IDC expects a 'challenging
transition' if the UK activates the process
of EU withdrawal," said Kamil Gregor,
Research Analyst, European Infrastructure
Group at IDC.
The cloud-related share of total EMEA
infrastructure expenditure grew to more
than 25.1 per cent in 1Q16, an increase
of four per cent on last year. In terms of
storage capacity, IDC reports that cloud
represented almost thirty per cent of total
EMEA capacity in the same period, with a
6.1 per cent decline over the first quarter
in 2015.
"IDC expects this
market to reach a
value of $10.7
billion by 2020,
or 46.4 per cent
of total market
expenditure,
making it one of
the strongest growth
areas for the European
infrastructure sector, compared
with the expectation of a stagnant, if not
declining, traditional market," Gregor said.
Public v private cloud
Within the cloud segment, all regions are
expected to increase spending in 2016
with investments in public cloud growing
at a faster rate than investments in private
cloud IT infrastructure. IDC says spending
on private cloud IT infrastructure will
grow by 10.3 per cent year on year with
more than 60 per cent of this amount
contributed by on-premises private cloud
environments, while spending on public
cloud IT infrastructure will increase by 18.8
per cent in 2016.
For cloud environments combined, the
analyst predicts that spending on Ethernet
switches will be growing at the highest
rate, 39.5 per cent, while spending on
Cloud is the strongest
growth area
IDC: Spending on IT infrastructure for cloud
environments will be strong in 2016
server and storage will grow at 11.4 per
cent and 14.2 per cent respectively.
For the long-term forecast, IDC expects
that spending on IT infrastructure for cloud
environments will grow at a 13.1 per cent
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to
$59.5 billion in 2020. This will represent
almost half of the total spending on
enterprise IT infrastructure.
In Western Europe, the growth in
cloud infrastructure spending has been
distributed nearly equally between
enterprise storage and servers, with
year-on-year growth of 12 per cent and
16.6 per cent respectively. The two types
of technology currently account for about
42 per cent and 45 per cent of the total
market.
External storage market in decline
