Disk storage revenue in Central and Eastern Europe up 10.8% in 2005

A 41.2% drop in price per terabyte in 2004 did nothing to slow revenue growth in the Central and Eastern European market for disk storage systems. According to ан IDC study of six CEE countries (Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Slovakia), vendor revenue for disk storage rose a healthy 7.4% in 2004 and an estimated 10.8% in 2005 to more than $587 mln. Preliminary data suggests capacity will shoot up by more than 30% in 2005 as organizations scramble to keep up with the continuing flood of data. For external storage, growth was even higher, with 2005 revenue up an estimated 18% to almost $428 mln and capacity up by more than 42% to nearly 14 petabytes. At a little less than a third of the market, Russia accounted for the largest share of disk storage revenue in 2004 and will again in 2005. Poland ranked second and the Czech Republic was third. Together, these three countries represented around 73% of revenue in 2004, with preliminary data suggesting they will again be the top 3 in 2005. Over the next few years, IDC expects Croatia to be the most dynamic market in terms of both revenue and capacity.