Storage software hype

Storage management software is increasingly being seen as a method to manage data, storage infrastructures, and compliance, governance and e-discovery requirements. According to Gartner's* Hype Cycle for Storage Software Technologies 2008, storage management software provides the tools to better manage the growing amount of data and the devices that store it.

"Solution growth areas focus on tools for faster recovery, better disk use with data de-duplication and archiving, and support for virtualised server environments. The continued success of storage software technologies - and their future success in solving business problems - will be determined not only by their capability to deliver promised cost or operational benefits, but also by the ease with which they can be integrated into current and future environments," the report states.

Gartner says the rate at which new technologies gain traction will depend on vendors' ability to show how using the technology resolves real business problems. "Marketing, sales and support continue to be important as companies compete for early adopters and then grow their customer bases. Technologies to watch include data de-duplication, continuous data protection (CDP), virtual machine recovery and storage cluster file systems. Although these technologies may never reach the Hype Cycle's Plateau of Productivity as standalone products, they will play a significant role in changing the way data is protected and managed. Archiving is evolving to meet the growing demand for robust tools that can support data growth and access challenges, as well as addressing regulatory compliance concerns."

The report notes that the storage software market has a healthy mix of technologies spread across the Hype Cycle. "CDP and data de-duplication are transformational technologies that will dramatically improve the way we protect and store data. Some technologies, such as e-mail archiving and storage cluster file systems, have high business value and short returns on investment, thus speeding up product adoptions and vendor investments to propel these technologies to maturity.

A focus on corporate governance and records retention has placed greater emphasis on archiving technologies.

Gartner

"Storage cluster file systems provide the technology to construct massively scalable storage architectures. Some vendors are offering it as software for enterprises and hardware providers to use in building arrays from their own components.

"Database archiving delivers high value, but has been slow in gaining traction because companies resist touching applications that are working. New, enhanced technologies in the recovery space are delivering moderate business benefits, and providing improvements that will result in better service at lower costs. In addition, the special needs of data protection for the virtual server environment have spawned a market for specialised recovery solutions."

Gartner says file archiving is still primarily used to better manage the use of storage and costs. "Storage area network (SAN) management remains a separate offering for many clients that aren't ready to deal with storage resource management (SRM) suites, which can be complex to deploy and manage."

The report adds that storage management software use continues to grow as companies aim to ensure data availability, while managing the cost of supporting growing volumes. "The marketplace has demonstrated a willingness to incorporate new technologies that lower costs or solve operational or budgetary problems. Venture capitalists continue to invest in start-ups, while established vendors are buying emerging companies with promising technology. There were at least 24 storage software-related acquisitions in 2007 - and 2008 is keeping pace, with 11 acquisitions logged as of May.

"A focus on corporate governance and records retention has placed greater emphasis on archiving technologies that provide quick access to historical data. Local and remote replication technologies, and disk-to-disk backup, are impinging on the tape backup market as users look to increase the reliability of data recovery and speed up the backup and recovery of data.

"Data reduction technologies are being deployed to contain storage costs and improve bandwidth use, especially as companies try to improve the protection of remote office data and enhance their disaster recovery capabilities," Gartner notes.

However, the report maintains that more work is necessary to automate the task of managing the growing number of infrastructure components, to better manage application recovery and to integrate these new capabilities into a solution that requires less-complex management and point product implementations.

* Report courtesy of Gartner.