The GCC external storage market suffered a year-on-year decline of 16.11% in the second quarter of 2015 to total $77 million, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). The research firm attributed the decline to the unstable socioeconomic and political conditions that are currently affecting the region, while also noting that the market’s terabyte capacity increased 11.4% over the same period.
The ongoing oil crisis – combined with subsequent IT budget cuts and the traditional Ramadan slowdown – saw the major markets of Saudi Arabia and the UAE post year-on-year declines in their external storage revenues of 10.6% and 15.6%, respectively, in Q2 2015. However, IDC expects deals in the government, financial and oil and gas sectors to go ahead as the oil prices stabilise.
Kuwait and Oman posted respective year-on-year declines of 6.9% and 15.6% in Q2 2015, while Bahrain and Qatar suffered more substantial reverses of 40.74% and 32.04%, respectively. “The slowdown seen in these markets is being influenced by a number of different factors that have resulted in weaker consumer and enterprise sentiment and cuts in government spending,” says Amro Alkhatib, a research analyst for systems and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East and Africa. “These include currency fluctuations due to falling oil prices, the lifting of international sanctions on Iran, and the ongoing crisis in Yemen.”
EMC continues to dominate the GCC storage market with 55.2% share, followed by HP with 14.4%. IBM increased its share quarter on quarter to total 6.9% for Q2 2015. The likes of NetApp, Huawei, Dell, and DDN, among others, also saw increases in their shares quarter on quarter (reaching a combined 23.5%) due to the introduction of new flash technologies and hybrid solutions.
From a protocol perspective, fibre channel registered an expected decline of 10.4% year on year in Q2 2015. iSCSI observed a substantial drop of 61.18% over the same period due to project delays across the region’s telecommunications, government, and finance sectors. NAS, on the other hand, showed healthy growth of 2.24%, courtesy of a number of major IT upgrades and maintenance projects taking place.
About the research
IDC’s ‘EMEA Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker‘ provides timely market information on the disk storage systems market in Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and the Middle East and Africa. Markets can be measured in terms of new storage capacity shipped, factory value, and end-user value of shipments. The tracker provides insight into the impact of market changes, key trends, and the results of vendors’ new product, marketing, and channel activities.
