Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage vendor revenue totaled USD 6.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, a five percent increase from revenue of USD 6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to Gartner.

"Following an abysmal third quarter, the fourth quarter of 2013 returned to growth. Driven by pent-up demand and the year-end budget flush phenomenon, the market overcame a fragile global economy and grew a strong 5% over the same period in 2012," said Roger Cox, research vice president at Gartner.

While Fujitsu and NetApp had year over year revenue gains, only two vendors - EMC and HP beat the year-over-year market growth rate in the fourth quarter. Propelled by broad acceptance of the HP 3PAR StoreServ and the StoreOnce disk-based backup platforms, HP led all surveyed vendors in year-over-year revenue growth. Beyond its broad ECB disk storage portfolio, EMC benefited from the success of its VNX and Data Domain product refresh offerings. The increasing traction of NetApp's Clustered Data ONTAP operating system within its installed base, as well as an alternative to competing solutions, is enabling NetApp to achieve above-market results. Fujitsu continues to make gains in the EMEA region and has a strong showing in its home country, Japan.

Dell, IBM and Oracle continue to underperform the market and lose share. Although the Dell Compellent offering is producing year-over-year revenue increases, these gains are insufficient to offset the decline in other members of its ECB disk storage portfolio. In addition, Dell may be suffering from organizational and structural issues associated with its leveraged buyout that are hampering sales. IBM's strategy of emphasizing its IP-based disk storage products is gaining traction but is not yet strong enough to offset declines in technology sourced from NetApp. Even though Oracle's ZFS Storage Appliance is a competitive offering from a technology perspective, Oracle's declining revenue results are due to inadequate market coverage.

For the year, worldwide disk storage vendor revenue totaled USD 22.5 billion in 2013, a 1.4 percent increase from revenue of USD 22.2 billion in 2012. This anemic year-over-year growth, the lowest since the decline in 2009, reflects the influence of muddled global macroeconomies, particularly in North America, Asia/Pacific and EMEA.

The culmination of the infrastructure build-out after the 2011 tsunami with the weakness of the yen contributed to Japan being the only region to experience an absolute year-over-year decline in vendor revenue. Although pricing per terabyte continues to decline as expected, the average selling price (ASP) per unit increased 5.1% in 2013, signaling larger configurations.