This study provides a detailed overview of external disk systems spending trends and forecasts for 11 industry sectors in Western Europe for 2007-2012. Trends are analyzed in detail, with a focus on the specific drivers that are shaping demand and on the solutions that are triggering investment in each vertical market.

Vertical markets covered include: discrete manufacturing; process manufacturing; retail/wholesale; financial services; business services; transport; communications; utilities; government; healthcare and education; other.

"Investment decisions and IT spending are set to become increasingly selective, but good opportunities will continue to be generated for storage vendors as companies across all vertical markets are still striving to identify the best solutions to cope with data explosion, in its many forms," said Serena Da Rold, program manager, IDC European Vertical Views, "In fact, IDC research revealed that some of the hottest priorities on IT managers' agendas in most sectors are tightly connected to storage."