4 #3885 ©2004
IDC
!
The days of purchasing technology for technology's sake are over. Meeting
business objectives is goal number one. Support for continuous global business
processes with complex internal and external dependencies is the norm.
!
Capacity continues to grow. Business operations generate new data daily.
Business analysis requires that more data be kept online and for longer periods
of time. Annual capacity growth of 30–100% is common.
!
Server proliferation has increased as prices have dropped below capital expense
minimums and business units and work teams develop applications to support
their missions.
!
Bladed servers promise to explode the complexity of the datacenter. Diskless
blades with networked storage are the most efficient architecture, especially
when data sharing is involved.
!
Finally, even seemingly mundane applications such as email are now mission
critical, increasingly demanding redundant systems and rapid recovery capability.
G r o w t h I n h i b i t o r s
Why users delay the adoption of SANs
We asked the following question of more than 100 end users in small companies
(fewer than 100 employees) and medium-sized organizations (100–999 employees):
Which of the following are your reasons for not having a SAN?
The reasons are listed
in order of most frequent mention:
!
#1 —
Direct attached storage (DAS) is adequate.
DAS increasingly becomes a
problem as the number of instances increases. Upgrades and backup become
increasingly time consuming, and compromises in quality of service (QoS) and in
recovery are inevitable.
!
#2 —
SANs are too expensive.
iSCSI, combined with capacity-optimized disk
drives and improved management functions, will greatly reduce the cost of SANs.
!
#3 —
Don't want a special network.
Supporting a Fibre Channel–based SAN
involves incorporating all new network skills. Protocol, hardware, suppliers, and
management tools are all new and different. iSCSI utilizes the IP/Ethernet
products already deployed. Employee skills are transferable.
!
#4 —
Don't need performance/availability.
Many Windows servers and some
Unix servers seldom reach gigabit traffic levels. The corresponding applications,
while critical, achieve availability through server redundancy or rapid repair.
iSCSI/IP networking routing is sufficient to deal with congestion or failed
components.
In summary, respondents cited the high costs and lack of benefits associated with current
Fibre Channel–based technology as inhibitors to adoption. Moreover, the integration of a
new networking technology (Fibre Channel) was a barrier. Interestingly, the vast majority
of large organizations already have SANs. We found very few that did not.
