IBM, on the other hand, saw improvements in its enterprise-class storage devices in terms of the performance and capacity offered. IBM augmented its mid-range systems by building more robustness and performance. It also introduced a new range of entry-level products, called DS3000.

Sun Microsystems also demonstrated good traction in the network storage market. Clearly, its acquisition of StorageTek in 2005 is paying off. During 2006-07, Sun added several new and innovative products to its product line, most significant of which was the modular storage series. The modular family incorporates the heterogeneous service and support expertise from StorageTek and end-to-end systems expertise from Sun.

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) took on the NAS market aggressively. In November 2006, HDS tied up with Ingram Micro to bring enterprise-grade storage solutions to SME markets in India, Malaysia, and Singapore. HDS signed a five-year global OEM partnership with BlueArc, the world leader in Network Storage Innovation. It also introduced the Hitachi high-performance NAS platform, powered by BlueArc.

TRENDS
The key trend that shaped the network storage market is the massive growth in unstructured data. Trends convey that unstructured data size will constitute about 80% of the total data size over a period of time.
Large enterprises went the SAN way for storing data for their core production applications. However, the adoption rate of NAS and IP SAN has also seen an increase, primarily because of the simplicity and unified platform that they provide. Storage investments have been in either NAS or SAN technology.
Meanwhile, a look at the adoption of Fibre Channel (FC) and Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) suggests that these two will be the most sought after in the days ahead. According to industry experts, FC will still remain the dominant storage network technology, even though iSCSI over Ethernet will restrain its growth. Aspects like continued backward compatibility and the increase in speed (4Gb, 8Gb) will continue to characterize FC technology for the data center. According to leading storage experts, Ethernet-based iSCSI represents the biggest challenge to FC dominance and 10GbE helps to narrow the gap. Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) offers a low-cost alternative to FC for low-to-midrange
direct-attached storage and server/storage cluster environments.

OUTLOOK
According to industry experts, the fastest growing segments in the storage services market will be storage implementation and integration, driven specifically by customer requirements for outside help in building and integrating storage area networks (SANs). Networked storage-related services, in general, will become an increasingly large part of the total storage services market through 2007, with spending for services on DAS continuing to decline as a percentage of the total.

Storage virtualization is gaining importance with the proliferation of SANs. The demand for, and the size of the storage market in India will keep rising as almost all enterprises and SMEs are making efforts to run their businesses efficiently. Increasing awareness of the need for disaster recovery and planning for business continuity are also driving this market.

Shrikanth G
shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in