Come together? Not now...in IT

September 18, 2009 -- Apologies for the blog title, but the recent tsunami of Beatles media hype has Abbey Road rattling around in my head. All puns aside, TheInfoPro (TIP) just released some interesting research regarding the organizational dynamics in the data center. The most interesting bit may be that most users believe there is an upside to maintaining separate data and networking management groups.

It's interesting to me because experts have predicted that different management groups within IT will eventual merge as the lines between the server, storage and network domains blur. But, as technologies such as server virtualization and unified networking emerge, end users seem to be taking an opposing view.

In its first "Organizational Dynamics Study," TIP looked at the structural issues facing IT organizations. According to the firm, "the study gives insight into the impact that technology and financial considerations will have on the evolution of storage organizations and shows ranges and optimal cost levels of support staffing."

Some snapshots of the research reveal:

• 54%of study respondents see a significant or major impact on addressing storage needs because of server virtualization.

• 78% of respondents said they do not expect storage and networking teams to combine.

• 77% said they do not have a separate virtualization group.

• 60% of respondents said their organization sees major operational benefit in having a separate data management group.

Myron Kerstetter, TheInfoPro's Managing Director of Organizational Studies says: "Looking toward the future, we found that important shifts in the organizational structure will occur in the next three to five years, particularly in the larger storage groups. But despite the hype, many organizations did not expect the creation of formal virtualization teams or the merging of storage and networking groups."

We'd love to hear your take on the topic. Shoot us an e-mail with your opinions.

More information on TIP's latest research can be found on their website.

TIP expects spending increase in 2H '09

July 21, 2009 -- On the eve of earnings for many major vendors, TheInfoPro (TIP) research firm is predicting a second half increase in technology spending.

According to TIP's customer research, which is based on interviews with thousands of Fortune 1000 and medium-sized enterprise end users, IBM, EMC and NetApp have been most affected by the tech spending slowdown of '09.

TIP claims that the best performing vendors have been those that compete on price or base their pitch on return on investment (ROI). CommVault, Data Domain and HP all fall into that category.

On the networking side, TIP predicts, "Cisco and Juniper will benefit from pent-up demand for increasing network capacity and performance, which will result in higher network equipment spending once economic conditions improve. Projects with a more immediate ROI will continue to be promoted for the remainder of 2009, benefiting WAN optimization providers such as Cisco, Riverbed and Blue Coat."

Data Domain was slated to release its Q2 earnings this Thursday, but nixed its concall after EMC announced yesterday that it has acquired majority ownership of Data Domain. EMC expects to complete its acquisition of DDUP by month's end and is slated to report its earnings Thursday morning.

Also on deck for earnings this week are Microsoft, F5, Riverbed, Juniper and VMware. Time to sit back, grab some popcorn and watch it all unfold.

Check out TIP's predictions and the firm's latest customer research at www.theinfopro.net.

TIP: SRM tech making a comeback

June 18, 2009 – According to the most recent Storage Study from independent research firm TheInfoPro (TIP), storage resource management (SRM) tools are in the midst of a comeback as enterprises attempt to boost utilization in tough economic times.

TheInfoPro's most recent study, which is based on data gathered from interviews with 250 IT pros at Fortune 1000 and medium-sized enterprise organizations, revealed that managing storage growth, capacity forecasting and storage reporting, and managing costs are the "top pain points" facing end users.

Enter: SRM.

A few tidbits from a press release on TIP's latest Storage Management Technology Heat Index – a barometer of the user needs and planned spending:

• Top technologies on the F1000 Storage Management Technology Heat Index include capacity planning and forecasting, storage performance monitoring and storage resource management – with capacity planning and forecasting jumping nine spots from number 11 six months ago to the number one technology on the index.

• Top technologies on the MSE Storage Management Technology Heat Index include capacity planning and forecasting, information lifecycle management, disk-to-disk and email archiving.

• Top Technologies on the European Storage Management Technology Heat Index include storage resource management, email archiving and thin provisioning.

Users get "excited" over storage vendors, technologies

Which vendors or technologies come to mind when you think about “exciting” storage products and services? According to IT industry research firm TheInfoPro (TIP), storage professionals in Fortune 1000 and midsize enterprises definitely have an answer to that question.

The firm’s latest research on storage adoption plans, management strategies, and vendor performance has been released and more than 250 Fortune 1000 and midsize end users say they are turning their attention to vendors that provide de-duplication, thin provisioning, virtualized provisioning, and capacity optimization technologies, according to TIP’s managing director of storage research, Robert Stevenson.

As a result, NetApp and Data Domain have seen the largest increase in mentions. Both vendors offer data de-duplication technologies and coincidentally each has pushed further into the de-dupe market over the past couple of days.

NetApp, which already offers de-duplication for primary storage via its Data ONTAP operating system announced this week that de-dupe is now available for its family of NetApp Virtual Tape Library (VTL) systems. Also, Data Domain this week entered a partnership with F5 Networks to co-market a joint solution that automates the movement of static and archive data from primary storage to a secondary storage tier. The joint offering will combine the de-dupe capabilities of Data Domain’s disk-based storage systems with the F5 ARX series of file virtualization devices.

Stevenson says his “Wave 11 Time Series Storage Study” shows that end users are looking for SAN architectures that are more active in managing storage utilization. It makes sense since the top technology in end users plans is once again data de-duplication, which has been dominating TIP’s list for more than a year.

Overall, Fortune 1000 users gave EMC the nod as the most exciting storage vendor followed by NetApp, Data Domain, IBM and 3PAR, while midsize users surveyed listed Data Domain, 3PAR, Compellent, EMC and HDS as their top five most exciting vendors.