Global revenue for OCP storage products will expand to $5.4 billion in 2023, up from $2.5 billion in 2019, according to the Data Center Storage Equipment Market Tracker report from IHS Markit. OCP storage revenue is expected to rise by 27 percent this year.
OCP storage represented 4.5 percent of overall server external storage revenue in the first quarter of 2019. Non-OCP white box equipment accounted for a 24.5 percent share, while traditional servers commanded 71 percent of the market.
“The market for storage equipment that complies with OCP-accepted and inspired specifications has lagged that of servers, but now it is showing signs of gaining momentum,” said Dennis Hahn, principal analyst at IHS Markit. “Rising activity and solid member participation within the OCP storage community are sparking increased interest from equipment suppliers. From the beginning, OCP founding board member companies Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Rackspace and Goldman Sachs have been ramping up their deployment OCP storage products. In addition, OCP member companies, especially in Asia, are increasingly creating OCP storage products, as demand from non-board member buyers has continued to grow at hyperscalers and enterprises across the globe.”
Since its inception, OCP has worked to drive innovation in and around the data center industry, bringing together thousands of engineers from now nearly 200 member organizations. The demands for data in the modern data center continue to expand with the growth of the internet of things (IoT), security and edge computing. This is making storage ever more important for enterprises.
“Open partnerships on data center storage hardware helps buyers through equipment savings and by cutting operating usage costs,” Hahn said. “By offering open products, vendors can better engage their DC customers in a dialogue about best practices that pay off in the long-run. Enterprises sourcing products are wise to avoid lock-in at both software and hardware levels, unless the products are providing quick pay-back on truly unique technologies.”
A new source of demand likely to drive OCP adoption is the market for edge products, especially for telco that are traditionally drawn to standards. Another new demand generator will be software-defined storage (SDS), which separates the purchasing of storage hardware from the software, where the hardware can then benefit from standards.
The current drivers for adoption of OCP storage equipment are still those associated with early adoption, such as cost reduction, rack density and power efficiency. However, within the next four years, companies will increasingly seek OCP storage equipment because of its conformance to specifications. Standards allow for greater choice when marrying together SDS hardware and software to create storage solutions and allow for consistent remote edge storage deployment and its associated support.