Raise the Flag for Compliance

3:30 PM -- This week, while hot dogs sizzle on the grill in celebration of Canada Day or U.S. Independence Day, at least some North American storage managers will be cooking up ways to cope with compliance. On days that honor their respective governments, ITers will think of how best to handle the data storage regulations those governments hand down.

Compliance is big news. Products and services to help end users store data the right way for the right length of time will fuel a $21.8 billion market by 2011, IDC says. (See IDC Cites Big Support Market.) Hardly a flash in the pan.

Big-bucks activity in the space abounds. Some recent cases in point: the $375 million Autonomy just spent on Zantaz; Iron Mountain's ongoing services M&A; the run on legal discovery; and Xiotech's focus on records management, email, and e-discovery. (See Autonomy Acquires Zantaz for $375M, Iron Mountain Buys Accutrac, Iron Mountain Opens M&A 'Pipeline', IDC Cites Big Support Market, and Autonomy Acquires Zantaz for $375M.)

While compliance has driven activity in storage for awhile, the focus is starting to narrow on the combination of archiving, outsourcing, and records management. Products and services that tie these facets together are likeliest to make headlines.

In the world of storage IT, compliance is a fuse that continues to light a string of fireworks.Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch