Report: IBM Passes All Major Vendors to Take #1 Position in Disk and Tape Storage Hardware Market Share Worldwide for 2006

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that a new report from leading industry analyst firm IDC shows that for 2006, IBM surpassed all storage vendors worldwide to claim the #1 worldwide revenue share position for combined disk and tape storage products. This news comes on the heels of IBM growing storage software revenue 28.2 percent for 2006 -- revenue growth which was nearly three-and-a-half times greater than the overall storage software segment, according to IDC. [1]

The newly released May 2007 report [2] by leading industry analyst firm IDC, “Worldwide Combined Disk and Tape Storage 2006 Market Share Update,” shows IBM in the #1 overall position for all disk and tape storage hardware for the full year 2006.

In a total disk and tape storage hardware segment that increased to $28.2 billion in 2006, IBM captured 22.2 percent of the combined revenue for full year 2006, besting HP’s 20.9 percent and EMC’s 13.2 percent.

“This is a watershed moment in the history of the IBM Storage business, reflecting a true turning point in how customers today are choosing their storage solutions,” said Andy Monshaw, General Manager, IBM System Storage. “Through the strength of our IBM Business Partners, our strategic relationship with Network Appliance, our tight integration with IBM Tivoli and the IBM Software Group, our deep history, experience and innovation in IBM Research, our Services capabilities, and the natural symmetry with IBM Systems, the IBM Storage business offers a portfolio of integrated solutions that can help clients deliver information on demand that is unmatched in the industry -- a portfolio that HP and EMC don’t have.”

IDC highlights in the report that as mergers and acquisitions continue, and requirements such as archiving, data protection and disaster recovery become more prevalent, more and more customers today are utilizing disk, tape and storage software as a means to manage a more integrated storage infrastructure. Per IDC’s report, IDC stated it “began monitoring storage vendor participants from a combined perspective in an effort to bring visibility into the strategic choices that are being made.”

The past year of marketshare results are showcasing where customers are buying, and in turn changing the impact of the IBM Storage brand on those customers. This month, Liquid Agency, a leading marketing and brand awareness organization announced that IBM Storage had won the inaugural Brand Impact Award, an award designed to set a new standard for measuring the effectiveness of brands. IBM Storage was declared the winner of the Inaugural Storage Brand Impact Award, while 2nd place went to EMC and 3rd to HP.[3]

For more information about IBM Storage, please visit http://www.ibm.com/storage.