Worldwide PBBA Market Revenue Breaks $1Bn Mark

Worldwide purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) factory revenues grew 3.0% year over year totaling $1.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14), according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Purpose-Built Backup Appliance Tracker.

For the full year, factory revenue was up 4.0%, to $3.26 billion in 2014.

Total PBBA open systems factory revenue increased 3.4% year over year in 4Q14 with revenues totaling $902.2 million while the mainframe market experienced a decline of -0.8% for the same period.

Total worldwide PBBA capacity shipped, for 4Q14, reached 924 petabytes, an increase of 40.3% year over year, while annual capacity was up 42.8% to 2.68 exabytes.

“Growth in the worldwide PBBA market remained strong in the fourth quarter, hitting the billion dollar mark for the first time in a given quarter,” said Liz Conner, Research Manager, Storage Systems. “An advancement of software features, allowing for greater flexibility, data tiering, file sharing, and data analytics, as well as an increase in integrated systems and a wider geographical dispersion have resulted in PBBA systems being recognized by end users as an integral part of their data protection strategy.”

Total Worldwide PBBA 4Q14 Results

EMC maintained its lead in the overall PBBA market with 63.8% revenue share in the fourth quarter, followed by Symantec with 11.5% share.

IBM and HP posted 6.7% and 4.0% market share, respectively. Quantum retained the number 5 PBBA vendor position with a 2.3% share of the worldwide market.

Total Worldwide PBBA 2014 Results

EMC maintained its lead in the overall PBBA market with 62.3% revenue share in 2014, followed by Symantec with 12.8% share. IBM and HP posted 6.3% and 4.1% market share, respectively. Quantum moved into the number 5 PBBA vendor position with a 2.2% share of the worldwide market.

IDC defines a purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) as a standalone disk-based solution that utilizes software, disk arrays, server engine(s), or nodes that are used for a target for backup data and specifically data coming from a backup application (e.g., NetWorker, NetBackup, TSM, and Backup Exec) or can be tightly integrated with the backup software to catalog, index, schedule, and perform data movement.

The PBBA products are deployed in standalone configurations or as gateways. PBBA solutions deployed in a gateway configuration connect to and store backup data on general-purpose storage.

Here, the gateway device is serving as the component that is purpose built solely for backup and not for supporting any other workload or application.

Regardless of packaging (as an appliance or gateway), PBBAs can have multiple interfaces or protocols.

Also, PBBAs often can provide and receive replication to or from remote sites and a secondary PBBA for the purpose of disaster recovery (DR).

IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Purpose Built Backup Appliance Tracker provides vendor share, market size, and forecasts for purpose-built backup appliances.

IDC provides key market insights and growth for vendors participating in the PBBA market as well as those that may introduce new products. Revenue and capacity for disk systems behind PBBA gateways is included in the PBBA market sizing and also in the forecast.

Some PBBA solutions integrate the data movement engine (backup application) with the appliance, while others serve as only a target for incoming backup application data. Both solutions are included in the PBBA market sizing, although segmentation between the two product categories is provided.

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.

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