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Tiered Storage challenges abound amongst the Fortune 1000
Added: (Fri Nov 04 2005)
NEW YORK—November 3, 2005—As networked storage capacity grows at far greater rates than anticipated, Fortune 1000 Storage pros are grappling with challenges around tiering their storage environment. The main drivers for the move to tiers had been cost and not wanting to treat all data equally. In the recently completed Wave 6 Storage Study, TheInfoPro (TIP), www.theinfopro.net, found that 53% of Storage pros have already made the move to tiers, 25% are in the process, and 11% have it in their plans. “TIP has seen the move to tiers for 2+ years now. In Wave 6 we are seeing a much more pragmatic approach, with Storage pros planning to grow or at the very least maintain their Tier 1 capacity due to a myriad of challenges around lower cost tiers, which includes performance, non-existent storage management tools, and the inability to move data between tiers,” notes Rob Stevenson, TIP’s Managing Director for Storage.
The findings are derived from 155 hour-long interviews with a peer network of pre-screened Fortune 1000 Storage professionals who represent over $750 million in purchasing power and provide expert commentary for TIP Storage Study reports, which are completed in six-month “waves”.
While Storage pros are moving to tiers, high end Fibre Channel is still a force. When asked to describe what type of new Storage Area Network (SAN) purchases will take place over the next 12 months:
> 36% of users cite modular, mid-tier SANs
> 27% of users cite high end Fibre Channel SANs
> 27% of users cite a combination of both mid-tier and high end Fibre Channel
“Our study found that targeting the right tier for the user and manual data mobility are the leading challenges for Storage pros as they get experience with the usage characteristics of the lower cost tiers,” says Ken Male, TIP’s CEO and Founder. Male also notes, “The slow evolution of Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) solutions is mitigating the benefit of the move to storage tiers. Today we see the archiving and data classification aspects of ILM gaining momentum; however, the available solutions are not robust enough to eliminate acute challenges the move to tiers has brought.”
To view a rich media presentation of findings visit: www.brainshark.com/theinfopro/Stor_NW_W6
A hallmark of the TIP research process is the detailed narrative commentary captured in the one-on-one interviews. A common thread discussed in Wave 6 is around the performance of Tier 2 storage. For example, a Storage pro from a Fortune 1000 pharmaceutical company said, “What keeps me up at night is when I load up my Tier 2 SAN like a Tier 1 and have a performance problem, with all my applications complaining, and then have to go back to Tier 1. We don't want to hit that wall, and if we do, it will be impossible to move back to Tier 1 in a timely fashion.”
Leading the way in TIP’s industry standard Technology Heat Index™ is Virtual Tape Libraries (VTLs), followed by Asynchronous Remote Data Mirroring, and 4 Gbps Fibre Channel. The proprietary Heat Index factors in the current and planned implementation of 21 different Storage Networking technologies, including NAS Gateways, IP SANs, SAS Drives, Fixed Content/Content Addressed Storage (CAS), Fabric-based Intelligence, Security Appliances and Storage Routers, prioritizing them based on the immediacy of implementation and near-term spending.
Interesting data points from TIP’s Storage Networking Technology Roadmap include:
> The low cost Serial ATA tier of storage is firmly entrenched and is being used primarily as a Disk-based Backup solution by 61% of the Fortune 1000, with 23% having it in their near-term plan (by end of 2006).
> Wide Area File Services (WAFS) is making a big move up the Heat Index, from 17th place in Wave 5 to 8th place in Wave 6. It is the technology with the biggest gap between its Heat Index and companion Adoption Index score, which translates to growth in this nascent market. Cisco, followed by Riverbed, Tacit, Brocade, and Juniper, are the leading vendors in plan for WAFS.
> Pain Points: Lack of Storage Management functionality, spanning Provisioning, to Capacity, to Backup Management, dominates as the biggest pain point facing Storage professionals.
> Average SAN capacity among the TIPNetwork for Fortune 1000 Storage pros is 455 TB, up from 279 TB in the Wave 5 Study. When interviewed in Q1 for the Wave 5 Study, Storage pros anticipated 40% growth this year; however, when re-interviewed in Q3, growth was actually 60%. Network Attached Storage (NAS) also maintains healthy growth rates, going from an average of 83 TB in Wave 5 to 141 TB in Wave 6.
> Fibre Channel SANs dominate. When asked to speculate as to what type of storage their server farm will be attached to at the end of 2006, 68% cite Fibre Channel SAN, 14% NAS, 12% Direct Attached, and 6% IP SAN.
The companies interviewed also provide their vendor “short list” for whom they are using or considering for each of the 21 technologies in TIP’s Storage Networking Roadmap, along with how much they plan to spend in 2005. Dozens of Storage companies are cited, with a mix of industry heavyweights like EMC, HDS, IBM, HP, Network Appliance, Symantec, Brocade, McDATA, Cisco, Sun, ADIC, Dell, Quantum, Adaptec, Juniper, Xiotech, Engenio, Emulex, and QLogic, as well as emerging vendors, including Riverbed, Archivas, COPAN, FalconStor, Nexsan, ONStor, Alacritech, LeftHand, EqualLogic, Tacit, Diligent, SEPATON, NSI, XOsoft, Intransa, Pillar Data, 3PAR, Incipient, Kashya, StoreAge, PolyServe, BlueArc and NeoScale.
A large part of the interview is spent on capturing detailed spending plans and in-depth discussions on vendor relationships. Overall, Storage spending looks upbeat heading into 2006, partly due to the investment in the infrastructure to support Remote Data Mirroring which scores high on the Heat Index, greater than anticipated capacity growth due in part to compliance and organic growth specifically around data warehousing.
To view a rich media presentation of findings visit: www.brainshark.com/theinfopro/Stor_NW_W6
New York City based TIP investigates key technology sectors in six month intervals or “Waves” by interviewing hundreds of decision makers, pre-screened for domain expertise, for an average of one hour. Known as the “voice of the customer”, thousands of IT professionals, technology providers and institutional investors rely on TIP research for robust vendor spending and ratings data, technology adoption overlaying vendors poised to benefit, and rich narrative commentary.
In addition to Storage Networking and Management, TIP studies the Information Security, Networking, and Server markets. Over 800 technology decision makers are members of the TIPNetwork, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Reed Elsevier, FedEx, MetLife, Merck, Cargill, and MasterCard. To learn more about TIP’s independent, objective research process where results are delivered without any analyst spin or bias visit www.TheInfoPro.net.