The external storage market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew by only 2 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, International Data Corporation (IDC) data reveals.
While referencing its EMEA Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, the IDC announced external storage revenue in MEA expanded slightly year on year to a total of US$233million with terabyte capacity rising 32 per cent over the same period.
”The modest growth can be attributed to consistent business typical of the first quarter of the year in MEA,” said Swapna Subramani, senior research analyst with IDC Middle East, Africa and Turkey.
“In the coming quarters, however, strong uptake of external storage systems in MEA is expected owing to large-scale deployments and projects across verticals.”
It was a different story for countries in the Gulf which posted growth of 83 per cent in the external storage market in the first quarter of the year with Bahrain and Qatar registering triple-digit growth.
Countries in North Africa, specifically, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia experienced a continued slump in external storage shipments in the first quarter of 2013 with IDC attributing it to political unrest and spiraling inflation.
In South Africa, the IDC said the storage market declined markedly (16 per cent) year on year in the first quarter of 2013 due to a decline in projects for Dell and IBM, while Egypt’s external storage market grew significantly owing to projects in the telecommunications and government sectors.
”We remain bullish on the African storage market considering the relatively small installed base and sporadic nature of large-scale enterprise projects.” Subramani added.
