Top five storage trends

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We have now left behind the political party conference season and moved into the storage conference season with IT PRO attending both Storage Expo in London and Storage Networking World (SNW) in Frankfurt.

All elements of storage were discussed, debated and demonstrated - but there were a few topics that were on everyone’s lips on the show floor.

We take a look at the top five trends in the storage industry right now and give you an explanation behind the buzz words.

Virtualisation

An unsurprising entry into the top five, virtualisation is not just a popular topic in storage but all across the data centre.

Many companies are opting for this tech, as by virtualising their machines they can consolidate their hardware, saving on both CAPEX and OPEX costs, while improving capacity.

However, the storage industry has always taken the technology with a pinch of salt. Although there was definite evidence that adoption of virtualised storage was on the rise, analysts and vendors still felt the need to show they weren’t fully committed to the idea.

Rene Millman, an analyst with Gartner, told IT PRO at Storage Expo: “There are people and vendors out there that would love us to virtualise everything [but] that's never going to happen.”

Cloud Computing

Again perhaps not a surprise in the top five trends from the storage conferences, but what made this such an interesting entry was the ongoing and passionate debate both about what cloud computing actually is and whether it is it secure.

One critic made his voice heard during a keynote at SNW. Steve Duplessie, founder of analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group, attacked the cloud for its lack of security and accountability, referring to putting data into Amazon as putting it “god knows where.”

At Storage Expo, Shawn Scott, head of IT technical strategy and security for Burberry, was more positive but believed companies will hold back from full embracing the cloud.

“There is always going to be a situation where you need to keep your own data,” he said. “As it stands today we have to take the hybrid approach.”

Regardless of the sceptics, nearly every stand at both conferences was offering solutions for cloud computing, so it is definitely a trend to keep an eye on.

Solid state disks

We have been increasingly seeing a growth in the solid state disk (SSD) market with more companies releasing products.

During a meeting with NetApp at SNW, the company said its latest offerings in its V series included SSD to increase performance. However, David Dale, global director of industry sales, admitted price was still an issue.

“It is early days for SSD,” he said. “[And] we have all watched the increased performance.”

He added: “The question is at this price point where do you want to implement it? The day will come though where you will buy SSD instead of disk.”

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