Pure pushes past IBM for top three place in all-flash array market

Pure Storage has overtaken IBM for the third slot in Gartner’s revenue league table for the first quarter. Dell EMC and NetApp maintain first and second places and IBM drops to fourth, followed by HPE, Hitachi Vantara and Huawei.

However, we note that Q1 is a seaonal low point for IBM which has duked it out for third place with Pure Storage for several quarters. It will take a few more quarters to see if this represents a permanent changing of the guard,

Selected Gartner numbers and a chart were revealed by Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers, in a mail to subscribers. Here is the chart:

Rakers’ storage market data comes from a Gartner external storage market report for the first 2020 quarter. He provided certain vendor all-flash array (AFA) market share percentages, a NetApp revenue amount, the share of the external storage market taken by AFAs and other segment percentages, from which we’ve been able to calculate vendor revenues.

AFA vendor shares:

  • Dell EMC – 34.8 per cent (calculated $766m) vs 33.7 per cent a year ago
  • NetApp – 19.3 per cent at $425m vs 26.7 per cent a year ago
  • Pure Storage – 12.7 per cent at calculated $279.7m vs 10.1 per cent a year ago
  • HPE – 8.4 per cent – $185m vs 10 per cent a year ago
  • Others – 24.8 per cent – $546m – meaning IBM, Hitachi V, Huawei, Fujitsu, etc.

Total AFA revenues are 44.9 per cent of the total external storage market vs 46.8 per cent a year ago.

We calculate total AFA revenues of $2.2bn for the quarter and the total external storage market at $4.9bn. Gartner said total external storage market revenues declined eight per cent y/y, with AFA revenues falling 12 per cent and HDD and hybrid storage revenues declining 5.1 per cent.

Rakers has also provided some more detailed vendor information. Dell EMC external storage revenues declined 11 per cent y/y and capacity shipped went down three per cent. AFA revenues shrank nine per cent.

Pure Storage revenues rose 10 per cent y/y and grew market share to 12.7 per cent. FlashBlade revenue was up 33 per cent and accounts for about 19 per cent of Pure’s AFA revenue vs 13 per cent a year ago. FlashArray revenue rose 12.8 per cent and accounts for 80 per cent of Pure’s AFA revenue vs a calculated 87 per cent a year ago.

NetApp external storage revenues went downhill 16 per cent y/y. AFA revenue fell 16.4 per cent and there was a 21 per cent decline in FAS revenue. However, total HDD/hybrid revenue rose an impressive 62 per cent.

HPE external storage revenues declined 19 per cent y/y, with AFA revenue slumping 26 per cent and HDD/hybrid revenue falling 14 per cent.