The market for computer disk storage systems grew a record 12.5 percent in the third quarter amid surging demand by businesses to secure a growing mountain of data, market researcher IDC reported.
EMC Corp kept its top standing in the $3.88 billion global market for external disk storage, with a 20.3 percent share compared with 21.3 percent a year earlier, IDC of Framingham, Massachusetts said late on Thursday.
EMC was followed by Hewlett-Packard Co, whose share grew to 19.1 percent from 18.7 percent, and by International Business Machines Corp, which rose to 12.9 percent from 12 percent.
Demand for computer storage has been gaining as companies are forced to back up vast amounts of e-mails, documents and other data to comply with new regulations such as the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act aimed at improving corporate accountability.
Total third-quarter disk storage grew 58 percent to 505 petabytes, IDC said. A petabyte is equal to 1 million gigabytes, which in turn is about the same as 25,000 notebook computers each holding 40 gigabytes.
Dell Inc of Round Rock, Texas, advanced to the No 4 position in the IDC survey with 8.4 percent of the market, up from 7.1 percent a year earlier. It displaced Hitachi Ltd which dropped to fifth place with 8.3 percent.