Compliance fears mean big bucks

Compliance worries may have translated into some good news for storage companies: Businesses have been increasingly spending on archiving their electronic correspondence to make sure they're on the right side of regulators, according to analysts.

A new report from analyst IDC shows that worldwide revenues from e-mail archiving software have increased sixfold from $33 million in 2002 to reach $180 million in 2004. IDC is predicting that the compound annual growth rate will be around 50 percent for the market for the next three years. Businesses have been throwing money at software companies to ensure they can find e-mails to answer regulatory and legal queries quickly. Growth in the sheer volume of data passing though companies also has contributed to the increase in software spending, IDC said.

Jo Best of Silicon.com reported from London.