Boom Time In Store

The ever-growing data is the key driver for the storage industry growing at

an aggressive pace. As per DQTop20 findings, the external storage market during

FY 2004-05 grew by 18%, and logged in revenues of Rs 565 crore. Indian

enterprises going up the maturity curve in terms of IT augured well for storage.

For instance, during 2004-05, one saw the beginning of the gradual shift from

DAS to NAS and SAN. The network storage market, both NAS and SAN combined, grew

at a healthy rate of 39% and summed up at Rs 311 crore. An indication to the

adoption of next level of storage from DAS can be amply seen with the 7% decline

in the DAS market. So with CIO preferences on storage changing and wider options

available, let's have a look at the key trends that shaped the last year and

what lies ahead for the enterprise and the industry.

SAN gets saner



The biggest driver here is IP SAN that drove the adoption levels. The DAS to

SAN migration based on IP was more pronounced mainly due to the lesser TCO as

compared to fiber channels. IP SAN offered a simpler topology as it ushered in

the SAN functionality on the TCP/IP. Also, IP SANs being compatible to Ethernet

made the network management issues easier as storage management over the WAN

brought new dimension to remote storage management at far lesser cost. But what

is to be factored here is that IP gave a whole new dimension to affordability

for SMBs in adopting SAN. But, at the same time, the traction IP SAN

demonstrated over the last year made the SAN market more defined with buying

segments aligning as per their affordability factor. For instance, SAN over

fiber channel is still the preferred option for telecom companies and large

enterprises with distributed IT environments.

Enterprises can also leverage the other latest technologies like iSCSI, or

Internet SCSI. This is an industry-standard method of encapsulating SCSI block

data within TCP/IP packets. It enables SCSI tape and disk devices to be accessed

in maximum security by using traditional IP hardware and software, anywhere an

organization's IP infrastructure extends. This means an organization that has

already invested in an IP network doesn't have to invest in a very expensive

second network simply to set up a storage area network (SAN).

Like other areas of IT, over the last year the affordability factor

considerably expanded with a slew of external storage options for the

enterprises. So enterprises can now connect multiple servers to a single storage

network that creates a SAN environment. This method provides a very flexible SAN

environment as the number of servers can either be added or scaled down.

Disk based storage: gaining ground



During the year, a significant development was India adopting disk-based

storage in addition to tapes. Overall, in the Asia-Pacific secondary storage

market, India was ranked second, behind Australia, with 19% overall market

share. This shows the traction tapes had over the year with all vendors

launching various products. But with disk-based storage showing momentum, it

might challenge tapes in the days ahead. Disk-based back up gained credence in

the SMBs. Also, in terms of productivity and time spent, a disk-based storage

scores ahead of tapes. For instance, it takes two hours to back up 1TB of data

on a tape and the same can be backed up in 30 minutes using a disk-to-disk

backup.

Storage automation: in the limelight



In its purest form, storage automation is the process of turning manual

tasks into things the system manages by itself, with little or no human

intervention required. This can include jobs such as storage provisioning,

backup, restore and other tasks managed by an application or by the user. The

goal is to translate business needs-such as a database that needs to be

accessible round-the-clock-into a series of specific storage-related actions

that the system can deal with on its own.

Vendors must cooperate with one another while industry-wide standards are

being developed, but it will be some time before industry-wide storage

management standards are fully adopted. Groups such as the SNIA have been

working on the CIM/XML standards for auto-discovery and remote configuration for

a long time, yet the first iteration of a systems management standard still has

some way to go.

In today's complex business world, data is increasingly becoming a critical

asset. Effectively and efficiently managing the storage of this growing asset is

challenging organizations as they juggle shrinking staffs, stagnant budgets, and

exploding costs. Organizations are asking themselves: How much data storage do

we have? How can we reliably forecast future needs? Why is storage growing? How

much worthless data is being stored? How much downtime is storage-related?

Enabling IT organizations to manage storage is key to not only containing

costs but also verifying that mission-critical systems run smoothly. Going

forward, the storage landscape in the country would further mature, with various

technologies playing a complimentary role in creating a robust storage

infrastructure.

Shrikanth G

What to consider before investing in on-demand storage?

Consolidate. By concentrating systems and resources into fewer geographical

locations with a smaller number of more powerful servers and storage pools, one

may be able to increase IT efficiency. Data and application integration can help

simplify systems management and improve security.

Virtualize. Storage virtualization is intended to hide complexity, and opens

the door to dramatically better resource utilization. Insulating one's storage

systems from the applications may not only help reduce capital and

administrative costs, but also enable better services and availability to users.

Without changing applications or disrupting user behavior, virtualization could

make your IT infrastructure more responsive, scalable, and reliable.

Automate. Choosing storage components with autonomic capabilities could help

keep costs down while improving availability and responsiveness. Given that

storage needs will only continue to grow in the future, autonomic capabilities

could help protect your data.

Integrate. The ultimate value of an on demand storage environment will be how

it facilitates the integration of data across your business processes, and also

that it frees up resources to work on this integration. When all servers have

secure access to all data, your infrastructure will be positioned to better

respond to the information needs of an on-demand world.