Storage UPDATE--September 22, 2003
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1. Commentary
- Data Storage Market in Transition
2. News and Views
- Storage Software Market Grows Worldwide
- Seagate Announces Storage Density Milestone
3. Announcements
- Success with Active Directory
- New Web Seminars on Exchange, Active Directory, and More!
4. Event
- New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show!
5. New and Improved
- Back Up Data with the Touch of a Button
- Integrate Applications into Storage Networks
- Tell Us About a Hot Product and Get a T-Shirt!
6. Contact Us
- See this section for a list of ways to contact us.
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==== 1. Commentary: Data Storage Market in Transition ====
by Elliot King, [email protected]
Data storage revenue numbers released earlier this month by market research company IDC comparing second quarter 2003 to second quarter 2002 were gloomy. IDC reported that sales of data storage systems, which IDC defines as storage products linked to three or more disk drives, fell 3.9 percent to $4.73 billion, down from $4.92 billion.
Earlier this summer, IDC reported equally dismal performance in the storage software arena, in which revenues dropped 9 percent in first quarter 2003 compared to fourth quarter 2002. Sales sank in backup and archiving, Storage Resource Management (SRM), and storage replication sectors. Storage replication took the biggest hit, dropping 11 percent to generate only $276 million in revenue, compared to $632 million for backup and archiving software and $417 million for SRM software.
Revenues varied significantly in different regions of the world. Sales in Asia and Japan were generally weak. The North American market, however, saw revenue climb for the second straight quarter.
Looking beyond the overall numbers, however, a more complex picture emerges. On the hardware side, although overall revenues for both Direct Attached Storage (DAS) and Networked Attached Storage (NAS) systems fell by 5 percent, sales of RAID-based storage systems dipped only 1.4 percent. Meanwhile, the Open Storage Area Network (SAN) market actually grew by 12 percent.
These recent sales numbers reflect that companies are turning to inexpensive disk arrays and, increasingly, to SAN and NAS solutions over expensive DAS alternatives. However, the ultimate promise of SAN and NAS devices has yet to be fully realized. Eventually, these devices will let companies manage their storage as one resource pool, resulting in increasing capacity and more efficient storage allocation across the enterprise. But that goal currently remains out of reach for most companies. Companies invested in SAN technology still have difficulty integrating and managing SAN solutions from different vendors as one network. Even many sophisticated IT shops operate "islands" of SANs, each running independently. Further complicating matters, new generations of network protocols associated with SANs (e.g., Internet SCSI--iSCSI) are rapidly developing.
The backup and archiving arena is also changing. Backup and archiving were once synonymous with tape drives and tape libraries. Backup infrastructures were relatively simple--large shops had the resources to mirror production data, then move that data to tape, whereas smaller shops simply moved data to tape according to a specific policy. Over the past 2 years, however, new backup and archiving technologies have emerged that highlight more rapid recovery, leading savvy storage administrators to rethink their entire backup and recovery process.
The net result is that the storage arena is in the middle of a significant transition. For many enterprises, the standard ways of managing storage are clearly inadequate. Few administrators believe that simply adding more large disk drives or large tape libraries is the best solution to their storage capacity challenges. Meanwhile, the technology underlying newer alternatives is still developing. Terms such as "storage virtualization" are easy to bandy about, but actually implementing an infrastructure that integrates SANs from multiple vendors or reworking the backup and recovery hierarchy remains a daunting task.
Nevertheless, storage is clearly moving in a new direction. As IT budgets firm up and the technology to support new solutions develops, the overall market should grow. And currently, it appears that the North American market will lead the way.
==== 2. News and Views ====
by Keith Furman, [email protected]
Storage Software Market Grows Worldwide
Following last week's news about IDC's Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker, IDC released information about storage software from its Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker. The report concludes that the overall storage software market grew 7.3 percent in second quarter 2003 compared to first quarter 2003, reaching $1.6 billion in second quarter 2003. The most popular segment of the storage software industry was the storage replication sector, which saw a sequential growth of 8.5 percent. Backup and archive software, the largest segment of the storage software market, saw 7.3 percent sequential growth. The Software Resource Management (SRM) market had the smallest growth, with only 6.1 percent sequential growth. "The markets for both storage replication software and backup and archive software are being accelerated by renewed customer emphasis on data protection and disaster recovery, as well as recent record retention and retrieval regulations. Meanwhile, the Storage Resource Management market faces continued budget priority pressures, which accounts for its more modest gains," said Bill North, research director for Storage Software at IDC.
The top five storage software markets and their ranking have remained unchanged since fourth quarter 2002. EMC leads the group with revenue of $399 million and a 26 percent revenue share, up 1.5 percent from first quarter 2003. VERITAS Software is number two, with $322 million and 21 percent revenue share, which is unchanged from the preceding quarter. Rounding out the rest of the list is Computer Associates (CA), with $142 million and 9 percent revenue share; IBM, with $134 million and 9 percent revenue; and HP, with $107 million and 7 percent revenue share.
http://www.idc.com
http://www.ca.com
http://www.emc.com
http://www.storage.ibm.com
http://www.storage.hp.com
http://www.veritas.com
Seagate Announces Storage Density Milestone
Seagate Technology announced the world's first hard disk capable of storing 100GB of data on one 3.5" platter. Seagate plans to include the technology in its Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 family, which offers the choice of a Parallel ATA (PATA) or native Serial ATA (SATA) interface. The Barracuda 7200.7 family will also support SATA Native Command Queuing (NCQ), a feature available only with native SATA drives. The technology enables the drive to intelligently reorder and optimize both read and write command execution, which improves the performance of queued workloads by minimizing mechanical positioning latencies on the drive.
Seagate is positioning the Barracuda 7200.7 family of drives for nearline storage applications, Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, entry-level ATA servers, and mainstream and high-performance systems. The 200GB PATA interface drives will ship next month. The 200GB SATA version is scheduled to ship in November.
http://www.seagate.com
==== 3. Announcements ====
(from Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)
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==== 5. New and Improved ====
by Carolyn Mader, [email protected]
Back Up Data with the Touch of a Button Maxtor released Maxtor OneTouch, a push-button backup and restore hard disk that features Dantz Retrospect Express backup software and a new design. Maxtor OneTouch lets you store as much as 300GB of data. You can position the drive vertically or horizontally, depending on your setup. The external hard disk costs $199.95 for 120GB, $299.95 for 200GB, and $399.95 for 300GB of storage capacity. Contact Maxtor at 408-894-5000 or 800-262-9867.
http://www.maxtor.com
Integrate Applications into Storage Networks
MaXXan Systems released the MXV320, a Storage Area Network (SAN) switch based on the company's Storage Applications Network Engine (SANe) architecture. The MXV320 comprises intelligent switch ports, a programmable switching fabric, and integrated server blades. The switch provides storage services at the port level and features a standards-based I/O engine that's optimized to run software applications. The MXV320 system configured with Fibre Channel switch ports and an application card with integrated IPStor software starts at $100,000. Contact MaXXan Systems at 408-382-6500.
http://www.maxxan.com
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