Telltale Signs Signal Demand For StorageTelltale Signs Signal Demand For Storage

Forget about the halcyon, stock-splitting days enjoyed by the top three storage vendors in recent years. In the past 52 weeks, EMC has plummeted from a high of $18.50 per share to a low of $4.75. IBM touched $126.39, but it dipped to a low of $57.99. And Hewlett-Packard, which reached $24.12, lost more than half its market cap to $10.75 in the last year. Although the stock market isn't scientific evidence of a company's future potential, it's an indicator to ponder as you examine the storage needs of the nation's largest and most innovative users of technology.

Networked storage has been deployed at a healthy rate since 2000, despite the multiyear economic downturn, according to this year's information 500 companies, each of which have more than $1 billion in revenue. Storage area networks were widely deployed by 69% of companies, an 11% increase compared with 2000.

One in two information 500 companies have placed more than a third of their data on networked storage. This contradicts IP-storage proponents who say that Fibre Channel-based SANs have penetrated only about 20% of the market. That might have been true three years ago, but large companies have been busy adding networked storage.

As much as we may hope this is an indication of economic recovery in the IT market, the reason behind these numbers is more likely grounded in late 20th-century thinking. Back in the late '90s, IT executives bought storage as it kept getting cheaper and they planned ahead to meet increasing capacity demands. So a lot of the storage that's in use by companies this year has been waiting for data for a couple of years.

The good news: There's a finite amount of storage capacity. One of these days it will be full, and the demand cycle will heat up again.

How does your company expect its data storage to develop in 2003? Let us know at the address below.

Martin J. Garvey
Senior Editor
[email protected]

Storage Consumption What percentage of your data is contained on storage area networks?

Judging from this year's innovative users of technology, IT spending has little influence on commitment to data storage. Companies need data storage regardless of whether they spend above or below average on IT infrastructure. SAN use among companies of all spending levels is comparative: 79% for below-average IT spenders versus 90% for above-average spenders.