Storage Winners & Losers of 2007

In a market as competitive as storage networking, there's plenty about which to cheer and jeer. And the last 12 months have been no exception. As customer demand increases for data protection that works, we've seen rocketing successes -- and resounding failures.

Following is our list of our top candidates in both categories, starting with the winners. As ever, we welcome your feedback:Winners:

VMware
VMware is not only the top IT success story of 2007, it is arguably one of the top business stories of the decade. A push for data center consolidation has raised the share price of EMC's brilliant acquisition by 195 percent since its IPO in August. VMware's embedded hypervisor for server motherboards could help up the ante for 2008.

Data Domain

This company's meteoric IPO is proof that data de-duplication has caught on big time with SMB storage customers. The next challenge for Data Domain will be to maintain top-dog position as competitors nip at its heels, particularly in the still-untapped enterprise market.

MAID
The idea of a "massive array of idle disks" pioneered by Copan and a handful of other suppliers has come into its own, fueled by demand for energy savings. Using a small number of spinning disks as a cache for non-spinning, passive disks is more widely accepted than ever before, implemented in gear from Copan, Fujitsu, NEC, Nexsan, and others. HDS has also entered the fray with an alternative approach it denies is MAID but that nonetheless involves online power adjustments to disk arrays. Expect more news in this quarter next year.InfiniBand
The year was a good one for InfiniBand, which seemed to crop up everywhere in announcements and marketing materials. Actual implementation rates may not be as dramatic, at least in high-end networks: Recent statistics released in November 2007 show that InfiniBand is the network of choice for 24.2 percent of the world's top 500 supercomputer systems -- down from 25.60 percent in June 2007. Still, InfiniBand is clearly filling a need in big data centers, even though its popularity may wane when 10-Gbit/s Ethernet ramps up.

Hewlett-Packard

Okay, HP wasn't a storage barn-burner in 2007. But it's no longer the lacklustre has-been it was becoming two years ago. Thanks in part to better leadership and lots of changes, HP is starting to see solid improvements in its Technology Solutions Group, which sells servers, storage hardware, software, and services. High-end storage and tape remain problematic, but with a focus on emerging areas like automation and security key management, the upcoming year looks bright.

Services
From online backup to storage-as-a-service to consulting, customers are reaching out for all kinds of help with storage neworking. This last week alone has seen news from Dell and EMC, as big players look to flesh out their offerings. Ongoing demand should boost startups like Nirvanix and help others, like consultancy GlassHouse, move toward IPO.

XenSource

It's in the hottest IT space imaginable: virtualization. It's been bought by a deep-pocket parent, Citrix, which plans to goose competition with VMware in 2008 by rolling out a hypervisor embedded in hardware from server vendors. If that's not a winning combination, we'll blame Citrix.

Next Page: LosersLosers:

Patent litigators
Efforts by NetApp, Quantum, Sun, and others to claim their fair share of technology ownership are crossing the line into obsession. Seeking action that's potentially industry-changing years after the fact isn't constructive for customers, and it's expensive and distracting for the litigators. In a survey this year, half of over 200 readers of Byte and Switch viewed the NetApp/Sun patent lawsuit and countersuit as "hooey." 'Nuf said.

The UK's HMRC
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs agency in England managed to lose data on 25 million people, most of them children, in a snafu that's sent shivers all the way to Gordon Brown's office, as folk angered by the loss of all kinds of sensitive data question the competence of government officials.

E-discovery

Despite the urgent struggle by many organizations to respond to new federal regulations, e-discovery tools remain diverse, costly, and service-intensive. This is a mare's nest of the first order, and it will take years for struggling customers to untangle it.

Isilon
Poor Isilon has seen its share price plummet more than 60 percent since its IPO in December 2006. Things have progressively worsened, despite ongoing efforts that included a CEO change and new product announcements. Maybe 2008 will see this worthy crew regain its footing.NeoScale

Granted, NeoScale wasn't a household name in storage. But it was the most recognizable competitor to NetApp's Decru, and its demise shouldn't have happened. The deterioration and loss of a company that by all accounts had solid technology, good funding, and a foot in the IT security door is a business school lesson in lost opportunity.

FCOE
While vendors argue the pros and cons of Fibre Channel versus Ethernet, proponents of Fibre Channel over Ethernet muddy the waters with rhetoric and confusing specs. Maybe Intel's open source code for Linux will help. One can only hope.

The SNIA

That storage management remains a thorn in customers' sides is a blot on the record of the Storage Networking Industry Association. After all these years, the group's lack of ability to drive standards far enough is lamentable. Sure, it's about consensus, which takes time. Sadly, the SNIA's taken more than its fair share of that essential element, and in doing so, has lost its street cred.

Greg Reyes
The former Brocade CEO Greg Reyes drew support from a range of sources after his conviction in a high-profile case related to backdating stock options for Brocade execs. Unfortunately, jail may be the latest chapter in the saga of this contoversial and heavy handed exec remembered for claiming big consulting fees once the board fired him.

Got any of your own winners and losers to add? Hit that message board below, or write to us.