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Data storage market set for huge growth

According to industry sources, the storage market in the Middle East and Africa region is set for a compound annual growth of 72 per cent to emerge as the most vibrant in the world. "The all-round economic boom and the dynamic growth of the banking and oil sectors have given a new impetus to the data storage industry, which last year was estimated at 6,577 terrabytes and valued at $212 million," said Bob Plumridge, director software Hitachi.

This year, according to Gartner Dataquest Research, the region's storage market will grow more than 70 per cent to 11,286 terrabytes with revenues valued at $231 million. According to projections, the market will grow to 20,264 terrabytes next year and by 2007, it will grow almost six-fold to 62,259 terrabytes with a value of $325 million.

"Companies today are challenged by growing data and require innovative and complete storage solutions to meet their replication and consolidation needs," he said.

In the Middle East, EMC, IBM and Hitachi are the leading providers of information storage and management.

"Hitachi Data Systems has ensured itself a solid foundation from which to expand in the region and we expect to acquire a sizeable share of the storage solutions market in line with our leadership in Europe where we enjoy 42 per cent market share," Plumridge said. "There is a very real need in the region today for advanced enterprise storage systems as well as strong demand for modular storage solutions and archival management systems in the business market," he said.

He said Hitachi has set up its regional base at Dubai Internet City to position itself for serving the market.

According to market sources, the demand growth would be more vibrant in the SMB/SME (small-medium-business/enterprise) markets, which represents the fastest growing segment of the data storage market.

Andrew Calthorpe, Senior Corporate Vice-President of STME, a leading enterprise storage systems integrator, said data storage is the biggest and most important IT infrastructure investment major corporations make "But senior managers do not always understand the necessity of storing data, and the sheer value to the business of maximising the availability, performance and manageability of business-critical data."

"Many Middle East organisations are seizing on new data storage strategies and solutions with great success," said Calthorpe. "Many have transformed themselves using the very latest solutions. Many more could follow suit."