Storage equipment consumption falls 22% since 2001

-- but will rise 53% per year to hit USD1.3bn in 2006

30 August 2002 -- Global consumption of fibre optic components in storage area networks (SANs) and remote SANs, with transfer capability of 100Gbit/s and higher, fell to USD142m in 2001, down from USD181m in 2000 (down 22%).

So reports ElectroniCast's Storage Area Network Fiber Optic Interconnect study, which adds that such consumption will now expand at an average 53 percent per year reaching USD1.32bn by 2006.

Jeff D. Montgomery, ElectroniCast's Chairman and founder, said, "The dominant SAN internal links have been Fibre Channel; initially 10Mbit/s, with rapid growth, with the 1Gbit/s FC finding substantial use in 2002. So far, growth has been almost entirely Fibre Channel, but Ethernet is beginning to penetrate this application."

In 1997, SANs were not a major market, relative to overall enterprise consumption of computational, storage and related interconnect equipment. Global consumption of fibre-optic interconnect links in SANs and related equipment was less than USD10m.

However, since 1998, span data rates of SAN intra-equipment and between-equipments fibre interconnect have multiplied dramatically, pushing designers to evolve from copper to fibre interconnect. Also, the number of equipment units produced per year and the data throughput per typical equipment unit have grown explosively.

North America leads concumption of SAN/RSAN fibre-optic link components, and in 2001 held a 73% share of SAN/RSAN fibre link consumption with USD103m. Its market share will decline to 68% while North American consumption value will rise to USD895m in 2006. The fastest consumption growth will be in Japan/Pacific Rim countries, climbing from 13% to 15% share or USD204m.

ElectroniCast's SAN Global Market Forecast is available for USD2,995. For more details, please contact Theresa Hosking, Director of Marketing/Sales at +1 650 343 1398; fax +1 650 343 1698.

www.electronicast.com