IBM At No. 5, And Actually Growing

IBM is the only other vendor besides NetApp to show enterprise growth in the first quarter of 2017, according to IDC.

The vast majority of IBM's storage sales are external after the company sold its x86-based server business to Lenovo. IBM total enterprise storage system revenue for the first quarter rose 1.5 percent to $455.3 million, largely on the strength of its flash storage sales. For external storage systems, IBM's revenue grew 2.7 percent to reach $440.6 million.

Eric Herzog, vice president of product marketing and management for IBM storage systems and software defined infrastructure, told CRN via email the company's growth stems from strength in strategic areas such as flash and software-defined storage. "We expect to build on our momentum as we enter a new period of innovation and growth in storage infrastructure," Herzog wrote.