Storage Industry Outlook 2014
The year that started with optimism for the external disk market is slowly starting to show a gloomy picture for months to come. The disappointment is evident because there were signs that solution providers would be able to capitalize on the Q4’13 budget flushes coupled with improved economic sentiment. However, data indicates that the external storage systems second-quarter factory revenues worldwide were down 1.4 percent on the same period a year ago to $5.87bn. From the long term perspective, fundamental issues related to storage infrastructure inefficiencies will continue to drive the sales pipeline provided the trend is backed by targeted budgets by enterprises; then perhaps by the year end we may see signs of improvement in the bottom line growth. Research from IDC indicates two noteworthy developments. Firstly, strong storage sales in the Asia-Pacific region and emerging markets. Other positive signals within the global storage market indicate upward movement from entry-le...