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The latest data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker shows that total worldwide enterprise storage systems factory revenue was $11.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016. That was down 6.7% from the previous year. However, total capacity shipments were 18.3% higher year over year to 52.4 exabytes during the quarter.

According to the IDC:

Revenue growth increased within the group of original design manufacturers (ODMs) that sell directly to hyperscale datacenters. This portion of the market was up 3.2% year over year to $1.2 billion. Sales of server-based storage declined 7.8% during the quarter and accounted for $3.4 billion in revenue. External storage systems remained the largest market segment, but the $6.4 billion in sales represented a year-over-year decline of 7.8%.

Despite the impact of headwinds on the broader enterprise storage systems market, companies continue to increase their investments in some key areas, including software-defined storage, cloud-based storage, all flash storage systems and converged systems.

The largest external enterprise storage systems supplier during the quarter, accounting for 32.9% of worldwide revenues, was Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DVMT). Its $2.12 billion in revenue was down 17.3% from a year ago. In a statistical tie for second place were Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP), with about a 10% share of the revenue each. As with Dell, and all suppliers overall, revenue declined year over year for these three as well. Fifth place Hitachi had 7% revenue share.

When Hewlett Packard Enterprise reported mixed fiscal first-quarter financial results last week, it specified three headwinds as having an impact on the outlook for 2017: increased pressure from foreign exchange movements, higher commodities pricing and some near-term execution issues.