iSCSI Continues Growth Spurt

By Mary Jander, June 6, 2008 5:25 PM

The Dow may be plunging along with American jobs, but iSCSI continues to bob above the macroeconomic mess.

In its latest quarterly "Worldwide Disk Storage Systems" report, IDC says that iSCSI SANs grew to $295 million in the first quarter of this year, up 67.6 percent year-on-year compared with the first quarter of 2007.

This compares to overall SAN market growth of 14.7 percent, and to 14.9 percent growth for the entire network disk storage market sub-segment (which includes SAN and NAS).

While still a relatively small segment (about 8 percent) of the network disk storage systems market just cited -- which IDC reckons at $3.6 billion last quarter -- iSCSI continues to outstrip both FC SAN and NAS. "iSCSI once again is one of the fastest growing segments within disk storage systems," writes IDC's Brad Nisbet in an email today.What's fueling this growth? Virtualization, for one thing.

Dell's success with its EqualLogic acquisition demonstrates the trend toward adoption of iSCSI for virtual infrastructures, Nesbit says: "We believe Dell acquired and positioned EqualLogic to help them tap into virtualized server opportunities among enterprise organizations."

Dell is now leading the iSCSI market with a 27.7 percent revenue share, thanks to a sizeable product roster that includes EMC Clariions and Dell MD storage systems with optional iSCSI, as well as EqulLogic's PS line.

NetApp is running second in iSCSI with 20.5 percent, according to IDC. And Nisbet thinks NetApp is aggressively pursuing the virtualization angle, too.

Where's EMC in all this? Hanging on to its Fibre Channel, that's where. "This is a more delicate and longer-term transition for EMC," Nisbet writes. "They need to develop the promotion of iSCSI while not disrupting their significant FC business."Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.