International Business Machines is taking on EMC in the data storage market with its new enterprise storage server, Shark.

IBM, once the leader in the $14 billion (€13.14 billion) world market for data storage, has been losing ground to EMC for the past three years. EMC is reckoned to have about one-third of the market for "open" storage systems capable of connecting to any system.

The rapid growth of e-commerce is driving an explosion in demand for storage capacity. Companies selling over the Internet are able instantly to capture large amounts of data about their customers, which can then be analysed to understand how buyers behave.

Mr Ron Kilpatrick, general manager of IBM's storage systems division, said: "There is tremendous business value in the massive amounts of stored data that already exist and are being created every second."

IBM says its new system will allow customers easily to add new storage capacity as needed, up to 11 terabytes (one terabyte is equivalent to 1,000 billion bytes). EMC's machines can store up to nine terabytes, although this is far more than most customers need.

Mr Steven Milunovich, analyst with Merrill Lynch, said he expected IBM to price its new products aggressively and to be successful in the market. However, he said it would take several months for customers to evaluate the new Shark system.

"Our bias is to give EMC the benefit of the doubt . . . We think many accounts have been burned by IBM's storage miscues in the past," Mr Milunovich said.

IBM invented much of the technology used for data storage, such as hard disc drives, and was at one point the market leader. However, it has lost ground to smaller competitors in recent years.

One of the biggest losers from IBM's new initiative could be StorageTek. IBM has been one of the biggest sellers of its data storage products, but this arrangement is now expected to end as the company focuses on marketing its own product.