The global network attached storage market size was valued at USD 36,526 million in 2022. It is estimated to reach USD 180,425 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 19.42% during the forecast period (2023–2031).
Network-attached storage (NAS) allows multiple users and their devices to retrieve data from a centralized storage capacity. With NAS, users on a local area network (LAN) access the shared storage through a standard Ethernet connection. NAS devices usually are configured and managed with a browser-based utility rather than a keyboard or mouse. In addition, each NAS on the LAN exists as an independent network node, defined by its unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. The most striking characteristics of NAS are the ease of access, high capacity, and relatively low cost. It provides a platform to consolidate storage in one place and to support tasks, such as archiving and backup, and a cloud tier. Further, NAS deals with unstructured data such as audio, video, websites, text files, and Microsoft Office documents. Organizations usually install a NAS system as a personal or private cloud foundation.
Digitization in various industries has experienced an extreme acceleration over the past decade. Digitizing a government requires multiple aspects, including the core capabilities for engaging citizens and businesses and the organizational enablers that support those capabilities. These make up a framework for setting digital priorities. In addition, governments are using digital tools to improve their interactions with citizens and businesses. Most begin by digitizing a few high-volume activities. The United Kingdom started its digital transformation program by digitizing 25 essential services, such as voter registration.
Furthermore, providing services on mobile platforms is another way governments align with citizens' digital preferences and behaviors. In China, some provincial governments accept passport and visa applications through WeChat, a widely used mobile app. Such initiatives by the government to digitize various processes and operations are anticipated to boost the adoption of network-attached storage (NAS). Organizations use faster, highly scalable, and secure NAS solutions to extract critical value from their data assets.
The International Telecommunication Union estimates that more than 4.1 billion people were using the internet in 2019, a 5.3 percent increase compared with 2018. The global penetration rate of the internet increased from nearly 17 percent in 2005 to over 53 percent in 2019. Furthermore, mobile data continues to become more affordable across all world regions, driving the growth of mobile internet users. The higher penetration of the internet and smartphones augments the amount of data users generate. A study by Domo, Inc. suggested that about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated daily by internet users worldwide. This large amount of data is required to be stored securely, increasing the demand for NAS solutions.
Preventing or recovering from security breaches in NAS systems is one of the significant challenges. Unauthenticated access to the NAS system allows attackers to access any data the device contains. Attackers can use vulnerabilities to fully compromise the security of the device and the confidentiality of any information it contains. Moreover, exposed NAS drives allow attackers to be much more creative about their scams. If a virus infects a file on a NAS device, it can spread to the rest of the files in the NAS environment. Further, if the virus is not identified and eradicated immediately, every time NAS data is backed up, the virus can begin a cycle of re-infection. Therefore, the concerns regarding data security are hampering the market growth.
A hybrid cloud storage solution is a mixed computing, storage, and services ecosystem comprising on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and a public cloud, with orchestration among the various platforms, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure. A hybrid cloud infrastructure combines public clouds, on-premises computing, and private clouds in a data center. The primary value of hybrid cloud storage is supporting a fast-moving digital business transformation. Agility is the hybrid cloud's main advantage.
Many organizations must combine public clouds, private clouds, and on-premises resources to gain the agility they need for a competitive advantage. For instance, 56% of the 950 IT leaders surveyed for Red Hat's 2020 State of Enterprise Open Source study stated they anticipated using containers more frequently during the following 12 months. Hybrid cloud storage solutions require NAS systems to store a large amount of data in their servers. This, in turn, provides an opportunity for the market to grow in the coming future.
Study Period | 2019-2031 | CAGR | 19.42% |
Historical Period | 2019-2021 | Forecast Period | 2023-2031 |
Base Year | 2022 | Base Year Market Size | USD 36,526 Million |
Forecast Year | 2031 | Forecast Year Market Size | USD 180425 Million |
Largest Market | North America | Fastest Growing Market | Europe |
Based on region, the global network attached storage market is bifurcated into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW.
North America is the highest contributor to the global network attached storage market and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 19.54% during the forecast period. North America is expected to grow rapidly in the network-attached storage market over the forecast period owing to the early adoption of technically advanced products in the end-user industries. The growing application of network-attached storage and connected devices drive the growth of the North American network-attached storage market. Large automotive, manufacturing, aerospace, and electronic industries are producing an enormous opportunity for the North America IoT Sensor market in the forecast period. In addition, the presence of major key players operating in network-attached storage, such as Dell EMC, Cisco Systems Inc., and Google, Box Inc. in the U.S., is driving the growth of the network-attached storage market in North America. For instance, in January 2019, Buffalo Americas launched the new Tera Station 5010 series—the successor to the TS7000 series; it is designed explicitly with a 12-bay rack mount TS51210RH model. The new model has hard drives and performs better than the TS7000.
Europe is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 18.85% over the forecast period. The European region offers a substantial potential for the market growth owing to rapid growth in markets such as U.K. and France. Among the European countries, Germany held the largest share and is expected to remain dominant over the forecast period. Europe is expected to exhibit significant growth during the forecasted period. In addition, the BFSI sector in the region is anticipated to be a potential customer in the upcoming years. For instance, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation partnered with Santander Bank and Telephonica to develop 5G use cases for the European banking industry. One of the use cases includes 5G storage and low latency storage solution based on the Hitachi Content Platform. The European Commission's radio spectrum policy helps to make the most of airwaves. In addition, the EC's joint approach to 5G utilizes a toolbox that defines best practices, including realistic measures to assign radio spectrum for 5G networks under investment-friendly conditions. The Commission aims to facilitate the deployment of very high-capacity fixed and wireless networks.
The network-attached storage market in the Asia-Pacific is in its promising stage. The rise in the inclination of consumers toward advanced technological products is likely to boost the network-attached storage market in this region soon. The government of the countries such as India, China, South Korea, and Japan is taking initiatives to develop technologies that use network-attached storage. In addition, Asia-Pacific is anticipated to hold lucrative opportunities in the upcoming years. In July 2020, Google announced its plan to invest USD 10 Billion in India. Through partnerships and equity investments to accelerate digitalization across the country. This shows that the region opens new market opportunities for key companies. Furthermore, the IT and telecom industry in the area is set to be the fastest-growing industry in the Asia-Pacific. The growing adoption of Smartphones and internet penetration is fueling the market growth.
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The global network attached storage market is segmented by deployment, storage type, and end-user.
Based on deployment, the global network attached storage market is divided into cloud and on-premises.
The cloud segment is responsible for the largest market share and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 19.63% over the forecast period. A cloud-based NAS is frequently used for backups and archiving. A vital benefit of a cloud-based NAS is that data in the cloud can be accessed anytime, anywhere. The main drawback of a cloud-based NAS is that the data transfer rate (DTR) is only as fast as the network connection the data is accessed. In addition, cloud NAS uses cloud computing to simplify infrastructure and provide flexible deployment options while reducing costs. Most cloud NAS service solutions work in cloud environments resembling Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. This NAS utilizes easily expandable cloud storage as a central source for storage while still providing typical enterprise NAS features.
On-premises software is more expensive than cloud software because it requires in-house server hardware, capital investment in software licenses, in-house IT support staff, and extended integration periods. However, on-premises software is considered safer, as the total instance of the software remains on the organization's premises. Companies with substantial investment in ICT infrastructure are adopting on-premises solutions. However, companies are shifting towards cloud-based solutions from on-premises to run business operations cost-effectively. As a result, the on-premise segment is expected to exhibit a declining demand in the coming years.
Based on storage type, the global network attached storage market is segmented into scale-out NAS and scale-up NAS.
The scale-up NAS segment owns the highest market and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 18.93% during the forecast period. Scale-up NAS solutions are generally installed in small and medium-sized offices, homes, educational institutions, and hotels, wherein a modest volume of data is generated. The storage of this data is the only requirement that must be met. Likewise, scale-up NAS solutions are available at a lower cost than scale-out solutions. The scale-up NAS devices have benefited the enterprises of organization discrete file servers that were discretely managed and configured earlier. In scale-up NAS, additional drives could be added to an existing system because scale-up NAS solutions are set to showcase more demand.
Scale-out NAS addresses the explosive growth of structured and unstructured data and the performance demands of today's workloads. Scale-out NAS is an advanced structure to enhance the storage capacity; to do that, it augments and boosts the total capacity of disk spaces. Scale-out NAS architecture benefits from the better price and performance of clustered components, assist in no disruptive operations and employs policy-based management for enhanced efficiency and agility. The considerable growth in the size and volume of the data is leading to an increase in the demand for scale-out NAS storage types.
Based on the end-user, the global network attached storage market is segmented into BFSI, IT and telecom, healthcare, retail, media and entertainment, and others.
The BFSI segment is the highest contributor to the market and is projected to grow a CAGR of 20.15% over the forecast period. BFSI (Banking, financial services, and insurance) industry continuously evolves, introducing automation and efficiency in the finance industry. Banks are diving into complex risk analysis to avoid loss of precious data, which is needed for cloud storage as a service that has emerged in all the services of the banks. The demand for network-attached storage is increasing as security and management of data and applications have become ever-important in the BFSI sector.
Over the past decade, vast amounts of data and the need for faster transmission have driven remarkable growth as pervasive connectivity becomes necessary in networks and telecommunications. An essential component of IT and telecommunications infrastructure is memory which determines how much data can be stored on a device and how fast it can be transferred, processed, and accessed. Network-attached storage uses devices connected directly to the network media; each device has an IP address that allows it to be accessed through a server acting as a gateway or directly by several clients.