Peace Out

Five years is a long time when it comes to technology. So it's no surprise that as I write this, my final blog as site editor of Byte and Switch, I contemplate a world of storage quite changed from its state in 2003.

Late that year, EMC, having just digested Documentum, gobbled VMware for a mere $635 million in cash and stock, which would one day contrast nicely with the whopping $1.7 billion VMware's IPO brought four years later.

Elsewhere, little startup Data Domain had just gotten funding for its ATA-based "recovery appliance." McData and Brocade were still distinct entities (the 2006 sale wouldn't actually close until early 2007). Sun had not yet bought StorageTek. Cisco was just about to buy Andiamo, the spin-in that developed its MDS 9000 series switches.

On the other hand, a lot has stayed the same over the years: EMC is still the 800-pound gorilla; Sun is still struggling; tape persists; IP SANs continue to spread but haven't killed Fibre Channel; compliance is still an issue.

Indeed, there's still common ground between the top trends we identified at the start of 2004 and those we picked at the start of this year:Table 1:

Even our latest midyear trend update shows similar threads. The need for faster storage, better data protection, improved scalability, better management... These are the perennial issues that have always faced storage managers and always will.

It's been challenging and fun to cover these issues for the last several years, and of course Byte and Switch continues to do so. For my part, I'm moving to another TechWeb publication, Internet Evolution. If you're passing through cyberspace, drop me a line.

My best wishes to all. And, as the kid said, peace out.Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.