Gartner says worldwide storage management software market to return to positive growth in 2003.

A difficult economic and competitive environment put pressure on storage software vendors to lower price points.

As a result, the worldwide storage management software market is forecast to grow only 2.9 percent in 2003, to $4.8 billion, up from $4.7 billion in 2002, according to Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT and ITB).

"The storage management software market will continue to struggle following a year where revenue was lower than forecast. Political uncertainties continue as the war in Iraq winds down, and travel is further restricted by the SARS disease in Asia," said Carolyn DiCenzo, vice president for Gartner's storage group. "Growth is returning to this market, but much more slowly than anticipated."

The enterprise storage resource management (SRM) segment will be the main driver of growth in the worldwide storage management market in 2003, as the segment is expected to grow 11.3 percent in 2003. The move from direct-attached to fabric-attached storage is adding to the complexity of storage management and is driving a need for new SRM tools.

"Storage-area network (SAN) management tools will see high growth this year, but tools to manage all storage resources in a more visual and automated way will be well-received when they become more robust," said DiCenzo. "The growing use of rich media and resulting storage management implications will open a market for new file systems and replication technologies that provide new ways to manage large files."

However, Gartner analysts said that organizational issues within IT departments around the storage function must be addressed before purchase and use of new management tools in a shared storage environment can be effective. Companies must organize the storage management function to provide a focus on storage that spans individual applications and systems, and takes into account the specific requirements of each application.

"Lack of funding for new technologies because of the economic issues of 2001 and 2002 will delay time-to-market for many new companies, slowing the rate of implementation of new product ideas," said DiCenzo.

Additional information on the storage management software market is available in the Gartner Dataquest Market Statistics report "Storage Management Software Forecasts: 2003-2007." This report addresses the size of the storage management software market and graphs the five-year forecast by subsegment and region. This report can be purchased on Gartner's Web site at www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=393772&ref=g_search.