HPE: Sort Of No. 2

HPE retained its position as the second-largest total enterprise storage systems vendor with first quarter 2017 sales of $1.9 billion, which was down 18.6 percent year-over-year. The company's external enterprise storage system business, led by its HPE 3Par storage line, did much better, with sales of $511.0 billion, down only 4.6 percent over last year, IDC reported.

HPE late last month reported total sales of its Enterprise Group fell 13 percent year-over-year to $6.2 billion, which it attributed in part to the loss of a significant unnamed customer. The one bit of good news for the quarter was a 33 percent growth in HPE's all-flash storage sales, HPE reported.

HPE sales include those attributed to China-based New H3C Group, which has a joint venture with HPE.