Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

IBM: Storage Is Cranking

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) execs pointed to storage as a driver of fourth-quarter growth during the company's earnings report today, though it's tough to determine how networked storage affected sales (see IBM Reports Earnings Rise).

IBM posted $26 billion in revenue for the quarter ended December 31, 2003, of which $9 billion, or 31 percent, came from hardware, including storage products.

"Revenue for total storage hardware grew 14 percent [sequentially], on strength in midrange disk and tape," IBM's CFO John Joyce said in a presentation to analysts today. Overall storage revenue was up 10 percent year over year.

Disk sales were up 9 percent year over year for the quarter and 10 percent for the full year, he said. But tape did well, too: "Our tape business also had strong growth, with 21 percent year-to-year growth in the fourth quarter, the second consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

"We believe that, when the industry data becomes available, IBM storage will have gained more than a point of revenue share in disk and gained several points of share in tape."

  • 1