IDC's Explanation

"The enterprise storage market closed out the first quarter relatively flat, yet adhered to a familiar pattern," explained Liz Conner, Research Manager, Storage Systems, IDC.

"Spending on traditional external arrays continues to slowly shrink while spending on all-flash deployments once again posted strong growth and helped to drive the overall market. Meanwhile the very nature of the hyperscale business leads to heavy fluctuations within the market segment, displaying solid growth in 1Q17," Conner said.