The external OEM enterprise storage systems (ESS) market reported annual growth of 5.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025, reaching $9.7 billion in spending. Enterprise Storage Market that was somehow eclipsed by the high double-digit growth in the server market showed a positive path in the quarter as companies started to invest in the postponed storage infrastructure refresh. Revenue associated with All Flash Arrays continue to show more dynamic by growing 18.1% YoY but surprisingly also Hard Disk Drives Arrays presented a positive growth of 3.1% while Hybrid Flash Arrays declined by 6.7%.

The volatile prices on certain components such as SSDs, HDDs and DRAM have impacted on storage market with some companies trying to secure shipments in advance due to the fear of further increments, also some are already picking a mixed that includes the former heavy declining HDDs based platforms in order to keep costs under control. IDC expects the recovery of the external ESS will extend in 2026 to reach 7.1% compared to 2025. The market for all flash arrays (AFA) and hybrid flash arrays (HFA) is expected to grow, with AFA favored for high performance AI workloads and HFA for mixed use cases.