In a recent forecast by Informa-owned analyst company Omdia, it was projected that global market revenue from „mission-critical“ data centre storage will reach a staggering $103 billion by 2028. This growth is attributed to increased sales and higher prices as digital transformation continues to expand across the global economy. Enterprises are seeking expanded cloud storage and computing solutions to effectively manage their workloads in this era of rapid technological advancement.
The press note did not specify whether the market is specifically for „mission-critical“ cloud storage in the Industry 4.0 sense or if it encompasses the broader cloud storage market. However, it is evident that enterprises are placing a higher value on cloud services as they invest more in their digital transformation efforts. Regardless, the forecast indicates a significant surge in annual sales, nearly doubling by 2028.
Revenue from data centre storage, spanning the edge-cloud continuum, was reported at $53 billion in 2023. This figure represented a 16 percent decrease from the previous year, largely due to economic challenges that led to decreased IT spending. Original design manufacturers (ODMs) experienced a sales decline of over 30 percent in 2023 as data centre equipment spending shifted away from storage temporarily. On the other hand, OEM vendors focused on traditional storage saw a smaller single-digit decline in sales.
Cloud storage shipments faced constraints in 2023 as cloud service providers allocated substantial portions of their budgets to the purchase of costly GPUs, driven by the AI trend that swept the vendor market. Omdia’s forecast covers external storage revenue from arrays and server expansions, highlighting the market dominance of ODM vendors in 2030 with a 32 percent share of revenue volumes. US-based Dell EMC held a significant 20 percent share among OEMs, followed by Huawei, NetApp, and Lenovo.
Despite the challenges faced in 2023, Omdia remains optimistic about the future of the storage market. The ongoing digital transformation, rapid growth in data volumes, advancements in AI, and the urgent need for storage modernization are expected to drive a resurgence in the market. As industries become increasingly data-dependent, the downturn in the storage market is likely to be short-lived, with a return to a growth trajectory on the horizon.
Dennis Hahn, principal analyst for data storage at Omdia, emphasized the strategic importance of storage and data management in modern digital enterprises. He highlighted the shift towards more cloud-like acquisition models, with a focus on pay-per-use approaches and overall data needs rather than just storage capacity. Ransomware protection and AI-driven data set creation are becoming essential features in storage solutions, reflecting the evolving landscape of data storage in the digital age.