HOPKINTON, MA -- For the fifth consecutive year, EMC Corporation is expected to finish as the world's #1 provider of external storage systems, and to maintain or extend its lead in the industry's major growth segments, according to a new 2001 report issued today by IDC. In its 2001 Disk Storage Systems Forecast and Analysis, IDC also forecasts EMC will take over the #1 market share position for the first time in the rapidly growing Networked Attached Storage (NAS) segment. The IDC report (which does not include information storage software and services, EMC's two fastest-growing lines of business) predicts EMC will sustain or extend its #1 position against all other suppliers in nearly every major information storage hardware segment for 2001. Among the highlights: -- In the total external RAID market (storage systems connected to any computer operating system or network), IDC projects EMC will lead with a 25.3% revenue market share, more than the combined shares of the next two competitors. According to IDC, the market for external RAID storage systems will be $14.9 billion in 2001. -- In networked storage, including both SAN (storage area networks) and NAS (network-attached storage) implementations, IDC projects EMC's revenue market share will be 38.9%, exceeding the combined revenues of the next three vendors. Within the external storage market, IDC forecasts overall networked storage market revenues will grow from $7.5 billion in 2000 to $8.1 billion in 2001, while the direct-attached storage (DAS) market is expected to decline 32.2% this year. EMC is the only supplier with greater than 5% share in both the SAN and NAS segments. -- In the NAS market, EMC will meet President and CEO Joe Tucci's August 2000 prediction and overtake the previous market leader -- by nearly 10 points -- in 2001, according to IDC. EMC will have 42.3% share in a market expected to grow from $1.62 billion in 2000 to $1.84 billion in 2001. -- EMC will continue to hold a nearly 20-point market share lead in the SAN market with 37.9% revenue share, more than double the share of the next supplier. IDC predicts the SAN market will grow from $5.91 billion in 2000 to $6.25 billion in 2001. "Even in a year when budget pressures forced most large corporations to reduce their storage expenditures, the transition from direct-attached to networked storage deployment continues at a rapid pace," said John McArthur, Vice President of Storage Research at IDC. "With significant market share leads in both SAN and NAS, EMC executed well in these growing segments. IDC believes more than half of all disk storage systems will be purchased in either SAN or NAS configurations by 2003, and two-thirds of the market will be SAN or NAS by 2005." EMC also will continue to be #1 in both the UNIX and Windows NT external RAID storage markets in 2001, IDC reports. In UNIX external RAID, EMC will again be the #1 supplier with 29.5% revenue share, more than the nearest three competitors combined. In Windows NT external RAID, EMC will be #1 again with a 26.2% revenue market share. David Donatelli, EMC's Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing and New Business Development, said, "Market leadership is a marathon, not a series of sprints. Only EMC, with our established CLARiiON and Symmetrix storage architectures and unparalleled software and services advantages, has the speed and stamina to win a long-term race that many others may never finish. With the world's largest commitment to storage-focused R&D, we continue to add to our lead in the market segments that represent the future of information management." For more information visit www.emc.com