Storage Organizations Focus on Optimizing Utilization

New York - June 15, 2009 - TheInfoPro, an independent research company for the IT industry, announced today that findings from its most recent Storage Study reflect that storage organizations have refocused their efforts on SRM technologies in lieu of purchasing new storage capacity as a result of budget freezes. Accordingly, storage professionals cite managing storage growth, proper capacity forecasting and storage reporting, and managing costs as top pain points for Fortune 1000 (F1000) storage organizations. Within MSE organizations, managing storage growth, managing costs, and proper forecasting and storage reporting are named as the top three pain points.

TheInfoPro's latest biannual storage study, based on in-depth interviews with 250 IT pros at F1000 and MSE organizations, outlines where storage departments within these organizations stand in terms of budgets, technology roadmaps and technology provider choices and ratings.

Key findings on TheInfoPro's Storage Management Technology Heat Index (gauges the immediacy of user needs and planned spending for more than 23 technologies):

??? Top technologies on the F1000 Storage Management Technology Heat Index include capacity planning and forecasting, storage performance monitoring and storage resource management - with capacity planning and forecasting jumping nine spots from number 11 six months ago to the number one technology on the index.

??? Top technologies on the MSE Storage Management Technology Heat Index include capacity planning and forecasting, information lifecycle management, disk-to-disk and email archiving.??? Top Technologies on the European Storage Management Technology Heat Index include storage resource management, email archiving and thin provisioning.

"Capacity planning, performance monitoring and resource management collectively top end user priorities for storage management and are at the top of the Storage Management Technology Heat Index," said Robert Stevenson, TheInfoPro's Managing Director of Storage Research. "Though, the move up for these three technologies is less about increased interest and more about decreased planned spending in all other storage management areas. "

About TheInfoPro's Storage Study

TheInfoPro's Storage Study is an in-depth look into the key trends occurring across all areas of the storage landscape, within disciplines such as storage management, storage networking and backup and recovery. The study is completed biannually through one-on-one, hourlong interviews with key storage decision-makers, including assistant vice presidents of enterprise storage, chief solution architects and directors of post production and infrastructure within F1000 and MSE organizations. The interview results are collected in comprehensive research reports that provide continuous business intelligence within key areas such as technology roadmaps, spending plans and vendor performance ratings.

Vendors mentioned throughout the study include: 3PAR, Asigra, BlueArc, Brocade, Cisco, CommVault, Compellent, COPAN Systems, Data Domain, EMC, Emulex, ExaGrid Systems, F5 Networks, FalconStor Software, Fujitsu, Fusion-io, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, IBM, InMage Systems, Iron Mountain, NetApp, Oracle, PowerFile, Quantum, Storwize, Sun and Symantec, among others.About TheInfoPro

TheInfoPro (TIP) is the only independent research network for the information technology (IT) industry. Through a peer network of over 1,600 of the world's largest buyers and users of IT, including Citigroup, FedEx, McGraw-Hill, MasterCard, Pfizer, Vodafone, PepsiCo, JPMorgan Chase, and Harvard University, TIP delivers detailed budget, vendor performance and technology roadmap data without spin or bias. Known as the "voice of the customer," TIP helps IT professionals, technology providers and institutional investors make sound decisions on technologies, vendor relationships and investments. Founded in 2002 by alumni of Gartner, Giga, EMC and Bell Labs, TIP is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. To learn more, visit www.theinfopro.net or call (212) 672-0010.