Adventures in Storageland

A little over a month ago I was given the opportunity to join Byte and Switch and dive deep into the world of storage. As a news editor at InformationWeek and InformationWeek.com for many years, I had learned a lot about technology and thought I knew something about storage. There were disks and tapes and direct-attached storage, network-attached storage and storage-area networks. What else was there to know?

Stop laughing.

I quickly discovered that I knew almost nothing. I learned that storage is a complicated technology with many moving parts that plays a crucial role in every aspect of business and technology. I found a fast-paced world filled with innovation, one with new technologies and strategies and a steady stream of new companies springing up almost daily. I had entered a world with its own language and culture and people.

I felt like I had parachuted into a foreign land, and the first thing a newcomer has to do in a new country is learn the language -- which was harder than I thought. Fortunately, I arrived at the height of storage tradeshow season (VMworld, Interop, Storage Decisions and Storage Networking World) and scores of vendors wanted to brief me on the new storage systems and software and services they were about to introduce. Thanks to all of you who took the time to explain the basics of storage to me. It was a great help. I ended up taking a crash course in storage as I attempted to learn what technologies are important, which companies are influential, which trends matter, and what were the biggest challenges facing storage managers.

So, what have I learned?Storage has not yet been standardized, commoditized, and homogenized like many other parts of the business technology world. Storage processes and procedures are not as automated as many other data center processes and procedures. Businesses are constantly buying more storage as the amount of data they need to keep for longer and longer periods of time keeps growing. All of those emails and videos and PowerPoint presentations and spreadsheets have to be stored somewhere. Storage is complicated and hard to do well.

Storage is really interesting, and storage virtualization, solid-state drives, data de-duplication, file virtualization, and other developing trends are adding the spice of innovation to an industry already in ferment.

There are differences between backup, mirroring, replication, continuous data protection, archiving, and disaster recovery. I can't provide a clear definition of each, but I do know there are differences.

People mean different things when they talk about "storage utilization," which explains much of my confusion when I tried to compare the competing claims by various vendors. Special thanks to John Haight of the Forsythe Solutions Group Inc. , who writes the "Ask an Expert" column for the Byte and Switch Website. He recently described and explained the six stages of storage utilization, which gave me a framework for thinking about storage utilization. Read this if you're ever unsure what somebody means when talking about storage utilization.

I've also repeatedly been told at least one thing that I don't think is true: "Storage managers are very conservative." I think a better word is "cautious." They're not going to jump on the latest and greatest new tech fad or trend just to be cool. There is too much riding on backups working, on archives working, on disaster recovery working, on being able to deliver the right data to the right application or user at the right time. Storage managers can't afford to take chances with unproved technology or unknown vendors.Yet, there is an openness to new ideas, new technology, and new vendors that is refreshing. If a vendor has a new and innovative approach that can save money, save time, or do things in a better and more efficient manner, they'll get a chance to demonstrate that. They might not make a ton of sales in the first few weeks or months. But if they've got the goods, the value of what they offer usually will be recognized over time and they will be rewarded.

Overall, this seems to be an exciting time to be entering the world of storage. I feel like I am finally beginning to learn my way around this industry, and I look forward to talking to more of you -- in your own language -- in the future. We have some ambitious plans at Byte and Switch to improve, expand, and enhance the site to provide you with even more information that will help you do your jobs more effectively. Stay tuned.