IDC Lowers Its 2009 Expectations for the External Disk Storage Systems Market, But Sees Rebound in 2010

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(Business Wire)--
The global economic crisis continues to plague many technology sectors,
including disk storage systems. IDC expects total disk storage systems spending
will experience -6.7% year-over-year worldwide growth in 2009; however, this
market sector is anticipated to increase 1.5% in 2010 over 2009. External disk
storage systems end-user worldwide sales will grow -3.1% in 2009 over the
previous year. Overall disk storage capacity worldwide is expected to grow less
than 35% in 2009, while external disk storage systems capacity will experience
44% growth in 2009 - a clear departure from the traditional 50-60% annual growth
seen in previous years.

Although 2009 appears very weak, IDC expects the demand for external disk
storage systems over the next five years will remain relatively healthy in
support of the vast growth of digital information. From a revenue perspective,
the five year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2008 to 2013 of 1.9%
reflects market recovery assuming annual cost per gigabyte declines of about 30%
over the same time period.

"We expect data generation worldwide will slow only a little over the next five
years," says Natalya Yezhkova, research manager, Storage Systems. "However, we
do expect a slowdown in the growth of new storage systems capacity shipments.
The economic crisis is the most powerful driver for this slowdown in the
short-term. Longer-term, a moderate contraction in capacity shipments is
expected as technologies that help to increase storage utilization or reduce
amounts of data that need to be stored are increasingly adopted."

"We expect the network disk storage systems market (NAS combined with Open SAN)
will have an insignificant decline worldwide in 2009, and actually grow in some
of the mature and emerging regions," notes Lindsey Varney, research analyst, IDC
Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Tracker. "Looking forward, it is anticipated that
the network disk storage system market will continue to grow steadily through
2013, fueled by continuously high growth in the iSCSI SAN market. Additionally,
after declining in 2009, the Open SAN market will regain its vigor in 2010 and
beyond."

Product Information

To provide further insightful market intelligence, the IDC Worldwide Disk
Storage Systems Tracker team introduced the Worldwide Disk Storage Systems
Forecast that spans up to two years of quarterly forecast (eight quarters), and
five years of annual forecast data. The new product provides IT investors,
end-users, and industry leaders a top-down competitive advantage on the future
of the disk storage market among the eight major geographies currently covered
in IDC`s Disk Storage Systems Tracker.

For more information regarding the IDC Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Forecast,
and subscription, please contact Lindsey Varney (+1.508.988.7813 or
lvarney@idc.com) or Jackie Gadah (+1.508.988.7894 or jgadah@idc.com).

About IDC

IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services,
and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer
technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the
investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and
business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and
local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110
countries. For more than 45 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help
our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG,
the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can
learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

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IDC
Michael Shirer, 508-935-4200
press@idc.com

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