Dell EMC Overthrows HPE For IDC's Worldwide Storage Market Share

IDC's worldwide storage sales numbers for second quarter 2018 are in. Dell, HPE and NetApp top the list in both total and external storage revenues.

Dell Takes The Lead

Dell is overtaking Hewlett Packard Enterprise as the worldwide market leader for enterprise storage sales, according to new second quarter 2018 data from research firm IDC.

Total worldwide storage revenue jumped from $10.9 billion to $13.2 billion in the second quarter 2018, representing a 21.3 percent increase year over year. Global external storage sales reached $6.1 billion, up 14.4 percent compared to the same quarter one year ago.

"Strong growth was driven by an ongoing infrastructure refresh cycle, investments in next-generation workloads, expanded use in public cloud services and data-driven initiatives," said Sebastian Lagana, IDC's research manager for Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies, in a statement. "The growing data economy is a big part of the current market growth."

CRN breaks down the seven vendors that led the storage market in the second quarter of 2018.

Dell

Worldwide Storage Share: 19.1%

External Storage Share: 29.2%

The Round Rock, Texas-based infrastructure giant's storage charge over the past 12 months is paying off as Dell captured the gold with $2.52 billion in storage sales, representing an increase of 26.6 percent year over year. The market leader captured 19.1 percent share, up from 18.3 percent share in second quarter 2017. Dell was also the leader for external enterprise storage sales, accounting for 29.2 percent share with revenues of nearly $1.8 billion – more than doubling its nearest competitor NetApp.

HPE/New H3C Group

Worldwide Storage Share: 17.3%

External Storage Share: 10.6%

Hewlett Packard Enterprise was the leader in global storage revenues in the second quarter of 2017 with 20.6 percent share. However, flat year-over-year sales led HPE's market share to plummet to 17.3 percent in second quarter 2018. HPE generated $2.28 billion in storage sales, slightly up from $2.25 billion the company generated during the same quarter one year ago. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company generated $652 million in external storage sales, up 4 percent year over year. HPE's external storage market share lowered from 11.7 percent in second quarter 2017 to 10.6 percent. (Due to the existing joint venture between HPE and China-based New H3C Group, IDC reports market share on a global level for HPE as HPE/New H3C Group.)

NetApp

Worldwide Storage Share: 6.3%

External Storage Share: 13.5%

NetApp's global storage revenue increased 20 percent year over year to $832 million in second quarter 2018 to take third place in worldwide storage sales. However, NetApp's 6.3 percent market share remained basically flat year over year. Since all of NetApp revenues came from external storage, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based vendor took home silver for external revenues with 13.5 percent share, up from 12.9 percent share in second quarter 2017.

IBM

Worldwide Storage Share: 4.6%

External Storage Share: 9.4%

IBM's worldwide storage sales hit $609 million during the second quarter, up 7.5 percent year over year. However, the Armonk, N.Y.-based company's storage market share dropped from 5.2 percent in second quarter 2017 to 4.6 percent. For external storage, IBM generated $579 million in sales, up 7 percent year over year. The company's external storage share decreased from 10.1 percent in second quarter 2017 to 9.4 percent.

Hitachi

Worldwide Storage Share: 3.1%

External Storage Share: 6.6%

The Tokyo-based manufacturer placed fifth in worldwide storage revenue with $416 million in second quarter 2018, representing flat year-over-year sales. Hitachi's storage share fell from 3.8 percent in second quarter 2017 to 3.1 percent year over year. Hitachi generated $402 million in external storage, representing flat sales year over year, to capture 6.6 percent share.

Lenovo

Worldwide Storage Share: 3%

External Storage Share: Did Not Make IDC List

Although placing sixth on IDC's global storage market share list, Lenovo grew revenues the largest year over year in terms of sales percentage increase. The Hong Kong-based company generated storage sales of $397 million, up 133 percent year over year. Lenovo doubled its market share from 1.6 percent in second quarter 2017 to 3 percent share in second quarter 2018. Lenovo did not make IDC's market revenue list for external storage.

Huawei

Total Worldwide Storage Share: 2.7%

External Storage Share: Did Not Make IDC List

The China-based communications giant generated $356 million in global storage sales, up 15 percent year over year. Huawei's market share remained flat year over year during the second quarter 2018, capturing 2.7 percent of worldwide storage share. Huawei did not make IDC's market revenue list for external storage.

ODM Direct

Total Worldwide Storage Share: 25.1%

Revenue generated by the group of original design manufacturers (ODMs) selling directly to hyperscale data centers increased 31.7 percent year over year to $3.32 billion. This represented 25.1 percent of the total enterprise storage market share during the second quarter, up from 23.1 percent year over year.