IT organizations can expect continued increases in both storage requirements and raw data set sizes, in the range of 30 to 50 percent per year for the next few years, according to The Advisory Council. This is particularly true for SMBs. While the analysts see no let up in raw storage demands among typical enterprises, they do see positive developments in hardware and software that will help companies simplify storage management, create virtual storage pools, and reduce overall data management costs in the process. Free advisory report on implications of data storage trends for IT organizations.

According to TAC, raw storage growth is being driven by the widespread use of e-mail, need for instant file access for business reasons, and the capture of more detailed business data structures to meet regulatory requirements. Meanwhile, demands for redundancy and high availability can easily triple the size of an enterprise data storage set over the primary occurrence of the data.

On the bright side, TAC expects to see more tools and standards being developed to address the need to manage large data stores more effectively. "Companies will be able use their storage assets more effectively by implementing some of the new storage virtualization and efficiency tools that are now being developed in response to the need to manage giant data stores," said Beth Cohen, a TAC Thought Leader, in a recent advisory brief. "These products sift out data redundancy -- multiple copies of the same memo, for example -- and store a pointer to a single instance of the file instead. The systems are also designed to manage unstructured file stores with millions of discrete heterogeneous files rather than the older technology where the large data stores were typically in the form of application specific databases where the data management was handled by the application."

TAC also expects companies to continue taking advantage of dropping prices by using more disk-based data storage to deliver redundancy and high availability, rather than directly reducing expenses. "Many companies are replacing their aging and expensive fiber channel equipment with cheaper iSCSI alternatives," said Cohen.

About the market research report

Contact The Advisory Council to request a complimentary copy of the complete report, "SmartTip - Data Storage Market Trends" (February 2007). Registration required. The report summarizes current and near-term data storage trends within the context of IT organization interests in cost-effective approaches to meeting storage requirements. The report includes a TAC Smart Grid.

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