Recent figures released by market intelligence house, IDC showing a massive 25% slump in high-end storage spending during the first quarter of this year. The research also revealed an overall decrease of 6.9% on the combined internal and external disk storage systems market, however such stats come as “no surprise” to some in the storage industry.
Andrew Baird, sales director, Logicalis Ireland, said there was nothing shocking about the “high end” figures in particular due to two main factors. “Firstly enterprises are unsure about the future. Cloud — what will they do with cloud? Many large institutions have held off on spending in an effort to see if cloud will answer their specific performance requirements,” said Baird.
In many cases, he said, cloud solutions can’t offer up the required performance levels and “too many unanswered questions still remain about data ownership, security, performance and compliance”. Added the Logicalis director, “the second and most noticeable change to the purchase of enterprise high end storage arrays is flash. Solid state disk (SSD) arrays and hybrid arrays are now able to offer the performance normally associated with Tier 1 storage and form very cost effective solutions.”
“I predict the end of Tier1 storage dinosaurs — the ‘flash bomb’ has landed. For now at least, it will be the performance storage media of choice, I’m not so sure that it is truly the future but time will tell,” Andrew Baird, Logicalis Ireland
Game changer
This, said Baird, “is a huge game changer”, adding that there are now “many start-up storage companies” trying to get in on the act as well, diluting the market and bringing down prices and potential profitability in the process. “I predict the end of Tier1 storage dinosaurs,” said Baird, “the ‘flash bomb’ has landed and for now at least, it will be the performance storage media of choice, I’m not so sure that it is truly the future but time will tell”.
Art Coughlan, server and cloud platform lead for Microsoft Ireland told TechPro that having spoken to a number of colleagues on the subject the “consensus” regarding the dip in sales is that the enterprise storage industry is one which “can be slow to move” with “a lot of the same themes applying for periods of five, six, seven years”.
Noting that there was “probably a slight peak in investment” in the area in recent years this was almost inevitably going to lead to a “trough after the peak as such”.
Elsewhere, Marc Connolly, senior technical architect in Comsys said the primary reason for IDC-reported dip is that high-end storage capabilities have become available in “traditionally mid-tier systems”. Connolly said customers are now finding that “many high-end requirements can now be fulfilled at a lower tier of storage, with significantly lower costs”.
“People are now finding that many high-end requirements can now be fulfilled at a lower tier of storage, with significantly lower costs,” Marc Connolly, Comsys
It is a point with which Microsoft’s Coughlan agreed, saying that while the “traditional model” of enterprise storage is likely “to stay around” for the time being, however “it’s the range of choice that is changing”. There will “always be a role for high end storage arrays” said Coughlan, adding that businesses are now simply taking advantage of the fact that in terms of storage technology “the choice is increasing and the ability to leverage those different capabilities in a way that’s controlled” is a major influencer on how companies choose to invest in this market.
Eating away
Francis O’Haire, director for technology and strategy with Data Solutions said that some in the industry feel that public cloud is “eating into” the business of the traditional enterprise storage vendors, however it is a point he “wouldn’t agree entirely” with.
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