By Emmanuel Oluebube, Correspondent UK

The EMEA purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) market has been resilient to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with spending on traditional backup appliances reaching US$366.9 million in 1Q21, up 10.3 per cent from 1Q20, according to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) latest PBBA tracker.

“Despite many workloads being located or produced in the cloud, spending on traditional backup appliances for data protection remains essential for many EMEA enterprises,” said senior research analyst, EMEA Storage Systems, IDC, Jimena Sisa. “Compliance with the GDPR remains a big factor in investments in PBBA market appliances. On one hand, enterprises in some European economies need to demonstrate by law that their data, regardless of its location and type, is protected, but at the same time, enterprises are also seeking to modernize their datacenter, though they like the stability too. So, they would favor suppliers that do not change their systems frequently, but whose solutions provide a single pane of glass and offer consumption models like in the cloud.”

The DACH market continued to be the largest and strongest in Western Europe in 1Q21, responsible for 35 per cent of market value, 4.7 points more than in the previous year, and reporting an increase of 29.1 per cent year on year.

The UK &I. has lost 2.2 points in market share since last year, at 23.4 per cent market value, an increase of 1.8 per cent in value year on year.

The French PBBA market declined 3.4 per cent year on year in value and 10.7 per cent in market share.

“PBBA demand in Western Europe increased in 1Q21, especially in the public sector, with the sector expected to continue to invest in this type of backup appliance,” said Sisa.

During 1Q21 major investments have been in target systems, which increased 26.7 per cent in market value, followed by integrated systems (which increased 5.3 per cent YoY). Growth in mainframes (VTL), however, decreased 60.6 per cent Y/Y.

CEMA

In 1Q21, the double-digit growth in the CEE PBBA market was the main driver of the entire CEMA region, which grew 5.7 per cent YoY (US$79.7 million in value). The MEA market remained flat.

Demand in CEMA came from government and education, and from the enterprise sector. While SMB clients were the most active in CEE, medium to large businesses invested heavily in PBBA to secure their operations in the new remote setup environment.

“Both subregions developed more positively than expected due to a continuing preference for entry-level and midrange backup appliances, which are still seen as an alternative to other growing consumption models and solutions,” said research manager, CEMA storage systems, Marina Kostova. “The boosting from the GDPR, as in Western Europe, was also quite visible in the EU CEE countries and this kept spending resilient.”