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By Graham Hayday, 18 March 2002 15:59

NEWS European companies are set to increase their storage capacity by nearly 60 per cent over the next 12 months, according to the latest research. An IDC survey, sponsored by Dell, found storage capacity will go up by 59 per cent in the region, outstripping demand in US companies. A combination of NAS (network attached storage) and SAN (storage area networks) solutions are currently being deployed or under consideration by 33 per cent of respondents. According to Dell, NAS devices are commonly used for shared access to information on a LAN, while SAN solutions provide back-up and recovery essential for optimised business performance according to the survey. Regionally, penetration of NAS devices was greatest in Northern Europe with 22 per cent of respondents having bought one. This was followed by 18.4 per cent of respondents in the UK and Ireland, 17.8 per cent in the US, 10 per cent in Central Europe and five per cent in Southern Europe. Within Europe, 30 per cent of participants in Northern Europe (including UK and Ireland), 47 per cent of Southern Europeans and 13 per cent of Central Europeans said they would implement a SAN solution in the next 12 months. Zarah Damji, IT analyst for IDC, said in a statement: "The data explosion and the increase in file sizes is the key driver for this growth, and along with increasing amounts of data there are concerns that its not being backed up. Seventy-one per cent of the respondents see data back-up as being business critical." IDC surveyed 260 companies throughout Europe and the US.