Striking a Global Balance
International growth surges at EMC
By EMC News Staff
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February 2, 2001 — Growth outside the United States was a key to EMC's strong fourth quarter 2000 performance and if a recent survey of top senior executives is any indication, 2001 looks to be a strong year for IT in international markets.
According to a global economic survey distributed to World Economic Forum participants in Davos, Switzerland, last month, European executives are confident that IT spending will continue to swell in the coming years.
Almost two-thirds of European executives said they intend to spend significantly more on IT in 2001 than last year. This is a considerably larger percentage than in North America, where IT investment has seen tremendous growth rates in recent years.
While other IT sectors in the United States have been hit by an apparent spending slowdown recently, the information storage industry remains strong. Globally, more than 60 percent of the total respondents said that they plan to expand capacity in 2001.
"The European executives in Davos were expansive in their tone," said Mike Ruettgers, EMC's executive chairman, who attended the forum. "They are not seeing what the U.S. executives are seeing in terms of an economic slowdown. The environment in Europe as well as Japan is bullish and strong. Global companies that have a good geographic balance of business are in a much stronger position today."
"One of our goals is to grow our international business to the point where we are 50-50 in revenue from the U.S. and abroad," added Ruettgers. "From what I have seen the international outlook looks strong and information storage remains resistant to any perceived slowdown at home."
Last week's announcement of 50 percent growth in information storage revenue for the fourth quarter of 2000 was testimony to EMC's surging success in many areas of the business. But EMC's success outside the United States may be the most dramatic development of the last year.
In Asia-Pacific markets, for example, EMC more than doubled its revenue in 2000. And Europe continued to be a success story, with accelerating growth and more than $2 billion in sales.
But even with the international successes of 2000, just 39 percent of EMC's total revenue now comes from outside of the United States. With a full 60 percent of global IT spending happening beyond U.S. borders, EMC is just beginning to take its share of the international IT pie.
"We closed an extraordinary year with a bang — EMC's international information storage revenue grew faster than that of the United States for the first time in recent memory," said Ruettgers. "And there is a tremendous opportunity to earn more business outside of the United States, where in many ways we are just getting started."
The EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region also grew faster, with 54 percent storage revenue growth year-on-year for the fourth quarter of 2000.
"We're seeing a demand for our products and services across the globe," said Ruettgers. "Best-of-breed knows no boundaries. I think that's what is clear from the progress we made in the last year."
At a Glance
Some non-U.S. customers who deployed significant EMC information infrastructures in Q4 2000:
ASIA
DBS Securities (Singapore) – A part of DBS bank, the company built on its EMC E-Infostructure with the purchase of a Symmetrix Enterprise Storage system and joined the EMC Proven program.
IIJ Technology Inc. (Japan) – A top-tier service provider in Japan, its multi-million dollar, 21 terabyte Symmetrix purchase was supplemented by a full range of EMC software.
Siemens Limited China – To enhance its communications-focused electronic controls and other products, Siemens purchased a range of EMC hardware and software. The company also is standardizing on EMC information storage.
EUROPE
Banque de France (France) – The French Federal bank made a multi-million-dollar, 30 terabyte purchase of hardware and software in order to standardize on EMC. The bank is running its data warehouses, check imaging and ERP initiative on an EMC E-Infostructure.
Caixa Catalunya (Spain) – Spain's third-largest largest savings bank purchased 6 terabytes of Symmetrix Enterprise Storage and several software products. The bank is supporting its Oracle data warehouse and e-business venture with EMC information storage.
Infostrada (Italy) – Milan-based Infostrada is Italy's No. 2 telephone operator for fixed line services and a leader in data transmission and Internet services. Its 30-terabyte purchase of EMC information storage is maximized by TimeFinder and Enterprise ControlCenter software. The company's billing, customer service and data warehousing are all supported by 160 total terabytes of EMC information storage.
Peugeot PSA (France) – France's leading auto manufacturer boosted its storage systems in Q4 and is now using more than 100 terabytes of EMC information storage. From Internet ventures to databases, Peugeot is supported by EMC systems.
LATIN AMERICA
Banco Real/ABN (Brazil) -- Part of the ABN AMRO banking group, Banco Real/ABN purchased 17 terabytes of information storage from EMC, along with a range of software. It also put the hook to its IBM "Shark" storage system, replacing it with EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage for data warehousing.
Carrefour Brazil (Brazil) – One of Brazil's largest retailers, the company purchased three terabytes of CLARiiON information storage, along with other hardware and software.
OptiGlobe Argentina -- Argentina's largest xSP became a new EMC customer with its Q4 purchase of two Symmetrix 8730s and several other hardware and software products. The company chose EMC after ruling out products from Sun and Hewlett-Packard.
Terra-Lycos (Brazil) -- One of the major Internet portals in Brazil, the company became a new EMC customer with a four-terabyte Symmetrix, Celerra and Connectrix purchase. It purchased the equipment to replace its Network Appliance storage units
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