Survey Scopes SAN Service Plans

Service providers mulling storage services are more likely to be large, incumbent local exchange carriers, according to a new report from Heavy Reading.

The report, "Survey of Service Provider Revenue and Spending Expectations for 2005," presents results from a worldwide online survey of 120 service provider employees, representing more than 75 carriers.

While most respondents expect solid revenue growth and increased capex in 2005, a minority look to SAN and storage transport services (STS) to provide it. About 34 percent of those surveyed already offer these services. For 2005, less than 15 percent plan to offer either SAN or STS as a new service. More than 40 percent of respondents said their company had "no plan" to offer SAN or STS to the SMB market.

Digging deeper into the results, though, shows more to the story. First, local incumbents appear significantly interested in SAN and STS services: 65.4 percent of respondents from local incumbent carriers said their company either offers SAN service to SMBs now or will do so by the end of 2005. A full 62.5 percent of respondents from local incumbents said their company would do the same with STS.

What's more, SAN and STS services are being eyed seriously by big carriers. STS ranks eighth in importance among planned service rollouts for 2005 among all service providers who responded to the survey. However, STS is the third most important service among large providers, those with staff of more than 5,000 -- a segment comprising more than 30 percent of respondents.

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More information on the 27-page report is available here.

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch