Enterprise storage market knocked by COVID-19, but may bounce back
The enterprise storage market in Asia-Pacific (APAC) is set to reach US$55.6 billion in 2024, according to data analysts at GlobalData.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected most of the industries in the APAC region, with the storage market being no exception, GlobalData finds.
The overall APAC storage market revenue is now expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% during 2019-2024, compared to the previous forecast of 14.6% before the COVID-19 outbreak, to reach US$55.6 billion in 2024.
Despite the estimated decline in storage revenue as compared to initial estimates, data volume continues to grow owing to factors such as IoT/connected devices ecosystem adoption, smart city initiatives by governments and increased proliferation of mobile devices, the analysts state.
As a result, enterprises further require storage infrastructure to store and process the data for their current as well as potential future requirements.
Other findings include that all-flash and hybrid arrays will witness the highest growth (CAGR) of 10.7% during the forecast period and is estimated to have a significant portion (approximately 43%) of the overall storage revenue by 2024.
Low maintenance requirement, cost-effectiveness and reliability are some of the key features that will result in the sustained demand for all-flash and hybrid arrays in the APAC region, GlobalData states.
Software-defined storage platforms and applications revenue is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.7% during the forecast period, as they offer better flexibility for storage space allocation for various devices and computation requirements.
Despite the growing adoption of software-defined storage platforms, revenue from network-attached storage (NAS) is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.1% during the forecast period.
Secure data storage at a lower cost, high efficiency and scalability options are some of the key drivers for the high adoption of NAS offerings, according to the analysts.
GlobalData senior technology analyst Shamim Khan says, "APAC will lead the enterprise storage market revenue growth by 2024, followed by North America and Europe. However, the growth might be affected as enterprises are preferring cloud storage options to ensure business continuity and remote data accessibility options.
"Despite this, the traditional approach of screening, surveying, and storing the data, the availability of cost-effective skilled workforce and secure on-premises storage infrastructure will result in significant revenue from the traditional storage offerings over the next five years.
Khan says, "The requirement of the enterprises to store structured as well as unstructured data to derive insights for enhancing consumer offerings, enhance business capabilities and replicate the data stored on multiple platforms will result in the growth of enterprise storage revenue.
