IndustryARC: Expansion of Data Centers to Propel Data Storage Market

The data storage market reached a value of $36bn by 2018 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 21% during the forecast period 2019-2025.

According to a recent report by IndustryARC, the data storage market is anticipated to grow positively owing to wide applications in enterprises, telecommunication, consumer electronics, Banking, Financial services and Insurance (BFSI), media & entertainment and other industries (particularly energy, automotive, government and education). The movement to hybrid storage and proliferated use of smart phones, laptops and tablets have increased penetration of storage data management.

Enterprise is a major application segment estimated to grow at a CAGR of 23% during the forecast period 2019-2025. This is due to the fact that larger enterprises, including data centers and e-commerce giants, have started building in-house data storage centers which automatically increase the procurement of data storage devices for various applications.

A study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) found that the total capacity of data stored is increasing by around 60% every year, globally. This is due to secondary storage devices, which are renowned for features such as low consumption of electricity, high capacity and long lifetimes. The early adoption of machine learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IOT) is influencing data storage in ways, such as lower costs, automation, enhanced security and reliability.

Recently, technological advancements in flash arrays, such as non-volatile memory express over Fabrics (NVMe-oF), are enabling flash drivers, such as USB and memory card devices, to be utilized more for data storage and transfer purposes. NVMe shows promise of delivering high bandwidth with ultra-low latency, making it one of the most popular data storage trends of 2019.

Over the last few years, growth of data centers has been increasing in the APAC region. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region held the largest market share of 37% in the global data storage market in 2018. The data storage semiconductor also known as memory units is increasingly deployed in data center infrastructure of countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, China, India, Japan and others, mainly contributing to the overall growth of APAC data storage market.

The latest findings state that the increasing growth in cloud infrastructure, implementation of Solid-State Drives (SSD) and Hard Disk Drives (HDD) in computer applications are expected to register a higher amount of share in the upcoming years, which will help the APAC region to continue its growth. A rising adoption of smartphones, combined with an increase in disposable incomes, will lead to a growth in digitalization in developing economies, such as China, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, and others.

End users play an important role in creating a substantial market for USB flash drives and memory cards. These devices have evolved over the past several years as they are platform independent and operable over any kind of operating system. One of the vital reasons behind their extensive adoption is its password restricted access and encryption as well as control over data transfer even if the internet connection fails, making them more likeable as secondary storage devices.

The increasing usage of digital devices and services by enterprises is likely to result in a huge amount of data, which will compel businesses to leverage cloud computing technologies. Leading companies such as Microsoft Corporation, IBM Corporation, Amazon Web Services, Inc., Samsung Group, and many others are offering advanced cloud computing services to boost the market growth, particularly in the APAC region. Some of the most popular cloud storage solutions for small businesses include Dropbox, Google Drive, Apple iCloud and Microsoft OneDrive in the data storage market.

Data Storage Market Growth Drivers:

  • Emergence of Interesting Content over the Internet: Increased penetration of the Internet has created a multitude of opportunities for industries such as media and entertainment, and advanced electric devices. Large file sizes of media content such as music, movies, and high-resolution images require high-capacity and high-performance storage devices. The digital transformation of content is creating a huge demand for manufacturers of data storage systems.
  • Role of hyper converged storage in enterprise data storage: A hyper-converged storage platform is initially focused on primary storage. The technology creates a solution by eliminating redundant data and storing data in a distributed form. Hyper-converged infrastructure brings together data center services to increase computing, networking and storage. This improves the performance efficiency and reduces the operational cost. An increased need of virtual machines requires more storage space to store applications like operating system and data. New technologies, such as hyper-converged infrastructure, provide an alternative for enterprises running VMs and managing data storage efficiently. The emergence of hyper-converged storage has provided benefits to enterprises, allowing them to reduce operational cost and simplify data management and has gained ground on cloud deployment.

R&D Investment and Initiative, Funding:

In 2018, Western Digital Corporation, a hard drive manufacturer and data storage company, launched the largest mechanical hard drive for data storage. This a 15TB helium sealed hard disk drive, specifically designed for data centers and cloud storage services. It is envisioned for enterprise customers who are in the need of compact and reliable storage systems. This product is anticipated to increase the demand from enterprises, which in turn will drive the growth of data storage market.

In 2018, Samsung announced plans to invest $16m into R&D over the next three years, with a focus on future growth of secondary data storage management in the South Korean region. In semiconductor products, Samsung will also invest in manufacturing hubs to meet significant demand for semiconductors from the automotive industry and data centers.

GIGABYTE, a well-known manufacturer of computer hardware components and systems, has entered into the data storage market by partnering with Bigtera to offer high-performance software defined storage solutions. The entrance of this new competitor is another proof of continued growth in the data storage market.

The Major Players in This Market Include:

The major players in the data storage market include Sandisk Corporation, Western Digital, Hitachi Data System Corporation, Samsung Group, IBM Corporation, Amazon Web Services, Inc., Alphabet, Inc., Microsoft Corp., Toshiba Corp, Seagate Technology LLC, IBM Corporation, and others.

Western Digital, a digital storage enterprise which manufactures HDDs, SSDs, NAND flash memory and hybrid storage products, has recently acquired two companies, namely, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and SanDisk. The acquisition is aimed towards enterprise customers, with increased focus on enterprise storage and enterprise servers.

Conclusion

In short, the characteristics, such as performance, capacity, visibility and adaptability of storage technologies, contribute to the growth of sales of server based storage system. The quick adoption of cloud based storage system is generally undertaken by larger enterprises with primary storage. In the same way, the increasing use of laptops and smartphones by end customers is creating significant demand of flash drives based on NAND, such as USB flash drivers and memory cards. In the future, the Internet of Things (IoT) will have a huge impact on the development of data storage technologies.

Image: Jens Johnsson

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