Report Scopes High-End Storage

A healthy market for high-end storage systems will endure for at least the next five years, spurred by ongoing requirements for ever-faster and more efficient SANs, says a new report from the subscription research service Byte and Switch Insider.

Hallmarks of the biggest, baddest storage boxes include redundancy throughout the system, massive scaleability, and advanced software features for point-in-time copying and replication services that don’t impact performance levels for other applications,” says report author Johanna Ambrosio.

“Only a few suppliers have the capability to play in this market. Mid-range systems may deliver on two or three of these parameters but don't address them all.”

Besides market drivers such as application consolidation, infrastructure simplification, regulatory compliance, and just plain doing more with less, high-end storage systems owe their continued growth to a range of technical innovations. These include the penetration of InfiniBand transmission, the rise of small-form-factor drives, and the addition of ATA drives and iSCSI connections, to name a few.

Suppliers of high-end storage also are making software and development services a key differentiator. The goal is to offer programs that allow the big boxes to handle different classes of applications, from the most mission-critical data on RAID drives to information that may be less frequently accessed on, say, ATA devices -- all within the same physical frame.Table 1:

Vendors in the select group of high-end storage suppliers are in varying stages of providing these kinds of features. The stringent requirements for market participation, though, have limited the roster of competitors to five, whose products are compared in a detailed chart in the report: EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW). At least two of these, EMC and IBM, have brought acquired technology to bear on their high-end lines.

Among the latest developments to come out of the high end is the release of refreshments to EMC's DMX line of products. In other news, HDS, whose high-end systems are resold by HP and Sun, is expected to introduce its next-generation, massively scaleable array, the Lightning 3, by the end of 2004.

"It all adds up to a market in which quality, not quantity, rules," says Ambrosio.

— Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch

The new report is available as part of an annual subscription to the monthly Byte and Switch Insider, which will be available for a special introductory rate of $899 through April 12, 2004, after which the rate will increase to $1,350. An annual subscription includes 12 monthly issues and access to all archived Byte and Switch Insider reports. Individual reports are available for $400 through April 12, 2004, after which the price will increase to $900.

To subscribe, or to get more information, please visit: Byte and Switch Insider