
Democratization of Performance in Storage


Gary Watson, CTO, Nexsan Storage Solutions, Imation Corp
What significant changes did ‘Storage’ segment witness in 2013? What did these changes mean to vendors and customers?
What we really saw this year was the beginning of the democratization of performance in storage. Innovative and efficient deployment solid state flash and disk technologies and protocol unification is accelerating the availability of enterprise-class performance for the midmarket.
What this means to customers and vendors is the opportunity to efficiently scale for the rising tide of data, while simplifying their ability to manage, secure and deliver fast business access to that data. SSD’s really became mainstream in 2013 for the first time, and are inexpensive and reliable enough to be deployed in most IT departments when there’s a need to accelerate “hot” data.
We also are beginning to see what IDC calls the convergence of data protection and recovery technologies and techniques. Mid-range enterprises are deploying more hybrid data protection arrangements using snapshots and replication in conjunction with -- and sometimes in lieu of – traditionalbackup software schemes. The use of these different approaches in combination gives customers better control over establishing and delivering RTO / RPO strategies.
What are some of the changes you had anticipated would happen in 2013 but did not happen?
Cloud continues to be well-hyped and much discussed, but we expected to see more of a shift to cloud-based IT storage and management than actually occurred in the market. We still believe cloud storage will trend positively, but we saw short-term conservatism in spending trends.
We also thought that the market would shed more of the newer storage startups due to increasing competition from the big players, especially in the realm of all-SSD solutions. However, 2013 saw a lot of talk but very few deliverables from them. 2014 might be very different.
Can you paint us the picture of how the landscape for this industry segment will change in 2014? What are some of the broader trends you are closely watching?
We think it’s only natural that flash memory move from using storage interfaces like FC and SAS, to more of a memory-style architecture using PCIe variants such as NVMe. The lower command overhead will make it practical for individual drives to reach into the million IOPS territory, and this may happen before the end of 2014. We think in 2014 that there is likely to be a quantum leap in the kinds of high-IOPS and low-latency storage solutions that will become practical and affordable.
How would customer spends change in 2014 (for Storage)? What makes you think customers will be buying more/ less?
We anticipate storage spending will accelerate in 2014 after a year of economic and political concern over sequestration and the government shutdown. Traditional hardware refresh cycles will drive this acceleration as well. We also expect to see a closer alignment between IT / CIO leaders and business leaders to drive higher business returns through improved business processes.
What's in store for your company in 2014?
Imation will continue to deliver the lowest cost per TB and the best IOPS-per-dollar technologies in a seamless, integrated experience. We see opportunities to further support our reseller partners by building out new professional services that help fit our highly versatile and reliable storage appliances and arrays for a range of use cases. We also are placing a renewed focus on application software integration and delivery of total solutions to our customers directly as well as through business alliances.
Press releases For CIO Review :
Encore media group | CIO Review
Featured Vendors
EDITOR'S PICK
Essential Technology Elements Necessary To Enable...
By Leni Kaufman, VP & CIO, Newport News Shipbuilding
Comparative Data Among Physician Peers
By George Evans, CIO, Singing River Health System
Monitoring Technologies Without Human Intervention
By John Kamin, EVP and CIO, Old National Bancorp
Unlocking the Value of Connected Cars
By Elliot Garbus, VP-IoT Solutions Group & GM-Automotive...
Digital Innovation Giving Rise to New Capabilities
By Gregory Morrison, SVP & CIO, Cox Enterprises
Staying Connected to Organizational Priorities is Vital...
By Alberto Ruocco, CIO, American Electric Power
Comprehensible Distribution of Training and Information...
By Sam Lamonica, CIO & VP Information Systems, Rosendin...
The Current Focus is On Comprehensive Solutions
By Sergey Cherkasov, CIO, PhosAgro
Big Data Analytics and Its Impact on the Supply Chain
By Pascal Becotte, MD-Global Supply Chain Practice for the...
Technology's Impact on Field Services
By Stephen Caulfield, Executive Director, Global Field...
Carmax, the Automobile Business with IT at the Core
By Shamim Mohammad, SVP & CIO, CarMax
The CIO's role in rethinking the scope of EPM for...
By Ronald Seymore, Managing Director, Enterprise Performance...
Driving Insurance Agent Productivity with Mobile and Big...
By Brad Bodell, SVP and CIO, CNO Financial Group, Inc.
Transformative Impact On The IT Landscape
By Jim Whitehurst, CEO, Red Hat
Get Ready for an IT Renaissance: Brought to You by Big...
By Clark Golestani, EVP and CIO, Merck
Four Initiatives Driving ECM Innovation
By Scott Craig, Vice President of Product Marketing, Lexmark...
Technology to Leverage and Enable
By Dave Kipe, SVP, Global Operations, Scholastic Inc.
By Meerah Rajavel, CIO, Forcepoint
AI is the New UI-AI + UX + DesignOps
By Amit Bahree, Executive, Global Technology and Innovation,...
Evolving Role of the CIO - Enabling Business Execution...
By Greg Tacchetti, CIO, State Auto Insurance
Read Also
Using Technology to Improve Remote Worker Safety
A Call for More Consistent and Better Customer Experiences
Empathy Matters More Than Your Technology Budget
Empowering the Retail Paradigm
The Evolution of the Matrix
How Blue Shield of California implements finance technology in...
