EMC's Asia-Pacific sales break US$1B mark

SINGAPORE--Storage giant EMC ended fiscal 2005 on a high, hitting the US$1 billion mark in sales revenue for the first time in the Asia-Pacific region.

The latest revenue figures, which include Japan, mark a 14.5 percent year-on-year growth in its Asia-Pacific business. In fiscal 2004, EMC's regional business recorded US$926 million in revenues.

The Asia-Pacific business represents about 12 percent of EMC's global business, said Steve Fitz, president of EMC Asia-Pacific, at a press briefing Thursday.

EMC's total revenue for the latest fiscal year ended Dec 31. 2005 was US$9.66 billion, 17 percent higher than the previous year's US$8.23 billion.

Compared to 2004, EMC grew most parts of its business in 2005. For example, sales of its midrange Clariion storage arrays grew by 32 percent, while the network-attached storage (NAS) business grew by 161 percent, Fitz said.

He revealed that EMC sold more Centera boxes, its solution for managing fixed content in enterprises, in the region last year. Centera sales grew by 74 percent last year over 2004. Regional software sales also soared by 60 percent, he added.

EMC's partnership with Dell bore fruit as well. Storage systems sold through Dell saw a 59 percent growth in the Asia-Pacific region in 2005 compared to 2004. EMC therefore plans to "enhance" its relationship with Dell in 2006, Fitz said.

Besides storage hardware, EMC is also looking to grow its market share this year in the bigger, "addressable" market which encompasses several areas including hardware, services, document and content management, said Fitz. He estimates this market to be worth about US$6.5 billion in the Asia-Pacific region, of which EMC has between 10 percent and 15 percent market share.

"We want to take that to just under 20 percent in 2006," said Fitz.

The storage giant acquired 1,214 new customers in the Asia-Pacific region over the past year, Fitz said.