Market needs guidance on storage, survey reveals
Market needs guidance on storage, survey reveals
Most information technology departments are grappling to understand how emerging storage technologies will assist them “firefight” day-to-day storage management issues, a Meta Group survey has revealed.
Storage is no longer a "tactical afterthought" for enterprises, but is increasingly in the front of mind for most information technology (IT) executives and managers, Enterprise Storage: Technology Adoption and Deployment Trends, a survey of more than 300 IT executives in the US conducted by Meta Group has claimed.
However, respondents said there is a relatively weak understanding of how much storage is being managed, little confidence in current backup and recovery practices, and a general lack of knowledge about emerging storage technologies amongst IT staff.
Whilst the pricing of storage hardware continues to decline, particularly in the current economic environment; related software and services are rising or flat at best, the Meta Group survey said, adding that many storage vendors are focusing on delivering solutions that will help ease management of storage operations .
The survey also revealed a "significant drop-off" for the adoption of individual tape and dedicated storage (internal or direct attached) for servers, and a strong propensity toward the use of storage area networks (SANs). The percentage of respondents looking at network attached storage (NAS) implementations will remain flat over the next two years, Meta Group said.
According to the analyst firm, enterprise demand for information storage has skyrocketed due to an increasing use of e-business applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM). Among the organisations surveyed storage surged with a two-year compound annual growth rate of about 90 per cent.
Yet, while storage usage continues to surge, most companies are coming to grips with the need to develop an enterprise storage consolidation strategy. More than 60 per cent of respondents said they have implemented or are developing storage consolidation projects. However, within that group nearly half are still in the conceptual stage.
Other key findings from the study include: Even as storage demand continues to grow, budgets on storage remain constant year over year as a percentage of total IT budget; most organisations do not have enforced storage policies and centralised storage administration; and enhancing backup and recovery, including disaster recovery capabilities, remains the number-one spending priority for the next 24 months.
The market is in "great need of guidance and direction", Meta Group's survey concluded."Many storage best practices remain to be engaged; formal policies are frequently found only in the mind of the CIO; IT personnel are still waiting for dedicated storage administration/management resources; and companies are struggling to find justification — beyond bleeding-edge technical features and functions — to support further storage purchases in senior-level forums."
Related Articles: