US-based data storage and management solution provider NetApp has shown optimism about growth in Taiwan's data storage industry, as the company registered a 90.3% on-year increase in its Taiwan revenue in 2021.
According to IDC statistics, NetApp led the Taiwan all-flash storage array and open networked markets in the fourth quarter of 2021, retaining its position as leader of Taiwan's external storage systems market for the third consecutive quarter.
Acknowledging the US-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic as growth drivers for Taiwan's technology industries in the last two years, NetApp Taiwan general manager Sean Lin said the Russia-Ukraine war and COVID restrictions in China have placed pressure on electronics companies recently. However, Taiwan's data storage market is still seeing some growth momentum thanks to growing demand from businesses, he said.
A Statista report showed that global data creation had grown from 2ZB in 2010 to 64ZB in 2020, and that the number is expected to hit 181ZB in 2025. IDC also predicted that data created in Asia Pacific countries, including Japan but not China, will increase to 33.8ZB in 2025.
Noting that inflation remains a major variable for Taiwan's data storage industry, Lin said the inflation has yet to impact data storage demand in the business market.
Lin pointed out that NetApp's Taiwan clients are mostly companies in the manufacturing sector. He said NetApp has also been exploring the financial sector, which has a lot of growth potential.
Sanjay Rohatgi, senior vice president and general manager of NetApp Asia-Pacific, also highlighted the company's outstanding revenue numbers in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific region. He said more and more businesses are adopting hybrid and public cloud models.
In March 2022, NetApp and Cisco unveiled the latest version of their FlexPod converged-infrastructure platform. The new FlexPod XCS platform is designed to accelerate the delivery of modern applications in a hybrid cloud environment, according to the companies.
