Storage: A Selling Point for Ethernet

Ethernet services are growing in popularity, and storage services are part of the trend, according to a recent report from Heavy Reading.

In a survey of 92 respondents in 90 enterprises, mostly in the U.S., nearly half the sample said Ethernet connectivity services presently account for at least 31 percent of their companies' overall spending on data connectivity services, and they indicated that spending on Ethernet will grow faster than spending on other kinds of enterprise links.

What's more, Ethernet is replacing existing services. A full 80 percent of the sample reported that their management won't continue spending on Frame Relay, ATM, and TDM private-line services.

This shouldn't surprise anyone: Ethernet offers a single user interface for multiple enterprise applications That's the force behind iSCSI and numerous advancements in NAS technology. What may surprise some is the news that storage applications are so prominent among Ethernet service attractions.

According to the survey, "Carrier Ethernet Services: The View From the Enterprise," nearly 90 percent of respondents expect to make use of storage extension over Ethernet and disaster recovery over Ethernet before 2009. That's more than double the level of use of those applications today.While 16 percent of respondents said they use storage extension over Ethernet services today, a full 40 percent report they'll do so by 2009, and another 33 percent plan to do so before 2010. As for DR over Ethernet, 21 percent use it today; 34 percent plan to use it before 2009; and 32 percent plan to use it before 2010.

These figures have one more potential implication: As Ethernet services grow to meet demand, it's likely there will be many more outsourceable storage options to choose from. Stay tuned.