WW Purpose-Built Backup Appliance Revenue Breaks $1 Billion Mark in 4Q14 – IDC

Worldwide purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) factory revenue grew 3.0% Y/Y totaling $1.0 billion in 4Q14, according to the International Data Corporation‘s Worldwide Quarterly Purpose-Built Backup Appliance Tracker.

For the full year, factory revenue was up 4.0%, to $3.26 billion in 2014.

Total PBBA open systems factory revenue increased 3.4% Y/Y in 4Q14 with revenues totaling $902.2 million while the mainframe market experienced a decline of 0.8% for the same period.

Total worldwide PBBA capacity shipped, for 4Q14, reached 924PB, an increase of 40.3% Y/Y, while annual capacity was up 42.8% to 2.68EB.

“An advancement of software features, allowing for greater flexibility, data tiering, file sharing, and data analytics, as well as an increase in integrated systems and a wider geographical dispersion have resulted in PBBA systems being recognized by end users as an integral part of their data protection strategy. Growth in the worldwide PBBA market remained strong in the fourth quarter, hitting the billion dollar mark for the first time in a given quarter,” said Liz Conner, research manager, storage systems. “An advancement of software features, allowing for greater flexibility, data tiering, file sharing, and data analytics, as well as an increase in integrated systems and a wider geographical dispersion have resulted in PBBA systems being recognized by end users as an integral part of their data protection strategy.”

Total Worldwide PBBA 4Q14 Results
EMC maintained its lead in the overall PBBA market with 63.8% revenue share in the fourth quarter, followed by Symantec with 11.5% share. IBM and HP posted 6.7% and 4.0% market share, respectively. Quantum retained the number five PBBA vendor position with a 2.3% share of the worldwide market.

WW PBBA Factory Revenue, 4Q14
(revenue in $ million)

(Source: IDC Worldwide Purpose Built Backup Appliance Quarterly Tracker, March 19, 2015)

Total Worldwide PBBA 2014 Results
EMC maintained its lead in the overall PBBA market with 62.3% revenue share in 2014, followed by Symantec with 12.8% share. IBM and HP posted 6.3% and 4.1% market share, respectively. Quantum moved into the number five PBBA vendor position with a 2.2% share of the worldwide market.

WW PBBA Factory Revenue, 2014
(revenue in $ million)

(Source: IDC Worldwide Purpose Built Backup Appliance Quarterly Tracker, March 19, 2015)

Taxonomy Notes:
IDC defines a purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) as a standalone disk-based solution that utilizes software, disk arrays, server engine(s), or nodes that are used for a target for backup data and specifically data comi ng from a backup application (e.g., NetWorker, NetBackup, TSM, and Backup Exec) or can be tightly integrated with the backup software to catalog, index, schedule, and perform data movement. The PBBA products are deployed in standalone configurations or as gateways. PBBA solutions deployed in a gateway configuration connect to and store backup data on general-purpose storage. Here, the gateway device is serving as the component that is purpose built solely for backup and not for supporting any other workload or application. Regardless of packaging (as an appliance or gateway), PBBAs can have multiple interfaces or protocols. Also, PBBAs often can provide and receive replication to or from remote sites and a secondary PBBA for the purpose of DR.